Young Gods of the DinoWorld: The Third and Final Story
by Nutcase friend
Summary: Last installment of my Wilde Family Stories. Buck, out of his prime and permanently damaged from the last war, has to come to terms with reality; he is no longer king of his world. Hundreds of Kilometers away, his Daughter Calamity with Tobiah the famous Rat Scout Captain, are searching for Jai, and on the way come across something terrifying; an enemy they can't simply fight off.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey my Fans! I want to say thanks for all the people who have followed this story from the start, and who have left me constant reviews that make my day better and make me keep these stories going. For those of you who are new to the Trilogy, welcome! But if this is the first one you're reading, you've gone to far, this is the third and final part to what has been almost a four year journey of development, planning, characters and writing. The first one being The Past Comes Back to Bite, then second being Two Worlds Clash.  
After this, there will just be side stories and such, but i really think this might be the end guys, unless i do generational stories, I'm not sure yet, i really don't want to Overkill.  
But also, this is just a prologue/preview as to what is coming. I have my final exams all in the next few weeks and months, so I reeeeaaally won't have time, and besides, I have to finish Moon and the Sea as well, which is as equally followed as this one. I guess I'm just letting you guys know, that this story is in development, and IS coming. I'm so happy it's gotten this far after so long. As usual, let me know what you think guys, please leave reviews, writers like myself love them.  
As a final note, I do not own Ice Age characters, but please to the gods don;t steal any of My Oc's, which are literally 99% of the characters in this, or so help me I'll send you to the land of the forgotten.  
Have fun guys, love Ya'll. _

The young rusty brown was gone.  
The young blood red was gone.  
The young black shadow was gone.  
The last two were following the first.

Buck sat on a log near the stream. The log had tiny, delicate tendrils growing from it, reaching for the spring sunlight.  
Buck was furiously carving at a piece of wood, his jaw set in concentration and his eyelid hadn't blinked for a long while.  
As he twisted his knife again, a sudden, frightening chill ran through him, causing his right arm to spasm for a moment, cutting too deeply into one of the carvings'  
sides.

The chill left him, and what replaced it was a sweeping anger. He tossed the piece aside and stabbed his knife into the log beside him.  
Hanging his head in his paws, he tried to calm his breathing.

This couldn't be him.

The last War had taken then ultimate toll on Buck. He reached down and felt the patch of exposed skin carved in his front. Even now, months later, that area of him felt twisted and tense. He knew it was the internal scarring, that piece of his body would never be the same. He'd even spotted grey hairs on his muzzle and chin. He gripped his head roughly. The pain of his own claws digging into him being a momentary distraction.

"Sweetie?"  
The soft voice made all of the pain go away, and he turned his head towards her, releasing it from his grip.

"Hey Love." He said quietly.  
Lucy approached him, and he took in the sight of her as usual.  
She had aged much better than he had. There was virtually no difference between now and eighteen years ago.  
Lucy sat down next to him, leaned into his shoulder, and they sighed together.

"Today's a hard day." Lucy almost whispered.

He nodded slowly, swallowing. "I jus' wanna be out there! I wana go find 'em love, I wanna fight alongside 'em, and go find the other side of the world…"

"I know. I wanted to give them another ring today."

Buck smiled. "An onyx for Cal's spear and a tigereye for Jai's bow?"

"I was going to make them different this year." She said sadly, running a clawed finger along one of the tendrils softly.

"We'll give 'em to 'em when they get back."

"It still won't feel the same as if we'd given it to them today." She frowned slightly as she talked. "It's just, todays the day. They're so grown up."

"Not if they can help it." Buck said, and they laughed quietly together. They both took deep breaths of the morning air, feeling a little better than they had.

* * *

Deep in the jungle to the North East, Calamity sat by a small creek, her rough fingers gently rubbing the soft bandana around her neck. The wind was strong today, ripping at the trees around her and she had to consciously stop her ears from flapping into her face.

Today was her eighteenth birthday.

She bit her bottom lip lightly with her overbite canines, trying not to think too hard about it. Winter had come and gone without their notice; all the seasons down here were more or less the same. But with spring and summer came the heat, a sickening, sweaty heat that made the air thick and heavy. And the rains. Torrential rains, monsoons, storms of the mightiest power, whatever you wanted to call them. Cal only knew that the journey, the search, was going to get harder.

It had been a few months since she and Toby left, and Cal missed her parents and friends. Hell, she even missed Oak-eye.

Toby was still asleep in the tree behind her, sleeping off last night's battle. This part of the jungle, closer to the mountains, was more treacherous than the familiar ones South West, and last night they'd had a wrangle with a pair of Pachycephalosaurus, and a pit of strangling vines. It had been late, very late, when they'd finally found a tree that they both deemed safe to sleep in.  
 _  
I suppose I'll go get some food,_ she thought, but then she thought that it probably wasn't wise for her to go off on her own here.  
And that scared her.

The thought, no, the fact, that she hadn't been as prepared for this as she thought she had, was terrifying. If she hadn't decided to take the little runt Toby, she would have been dead by now.

"Happy Birthday."  
The wind blocked out most of his voice, but Cal heard them just enough to smile and turn her head.

"Thanks Toby. How did you know?"  
He pointed to the creek as he came her way and sat down.

"Typheria Ossi, it flowers on the first day of spring, and everyone knows that's when you and Jai were born."

Cal looked at the plant he had pointed at, a tiny purple flower on a bed of healthy green moss that grew on a half-submerged stone.  
"I know that flower. If you chew it, it makes your tongue feel funny. Dad fed it to me as a joke once."

Toby smiled and nodded, "It's good for headaches when it's crushed into some water."

"Huh, I didn't know that. I thought mum taught us everything."

Toby laughed. "Lucy doesn't believe headaches need to be 'cured', unless they're migraines."

"I guess she has a point." Cal said with her own laugh.

They fell into a comfortable silence, Toby swinging his legs in the water slowly, dragging them back and forth, both of them watching how the water bent around his black fur. He'd gotten leaner on this trip, as had Cal. She hadn't thought either of them could lose weight and gain muscle, but she'd been wrong. She knew that was going to be a problem once they hit the mountains, but it would be difficult to gain the weight back when they were fighting things and moving pretty much fourteen hours a day. And the further they went North, it seemed the scarcer food became. It was a harsher setting, a harder, more brutal surrounding, where the bark was harder and the plants more poisonous. Cal was seeing many plants she knew, but more and more that she didn't. Luckily Toby had spent a surprising amount of time around her mother and Sasha, who had both known more than Cal about such things.

"So, did you think about what I said yesterday? You're calling the shots as much as I am here." Cal asked.

Toby took a deep breath in and expelled it, watching the water, then sat forward with his elbows on his legs.  
"I honestly think you're right. We've practically checked everywhere we can think of around here, the only place we haven't checked is the mountains…and beyond them." He looked up, between the trees around them, to the cold, dreary peaks that towered only a few kilometres away. They were close enough to the surface world that they were cold, bleak, and in the coming spring the weather would be horrible as cold and warm air clashed among the mountain like vicious giants.  
Then Toby closed his eyes and bowed his head with a smile. "Besides, it's not like I could stop you or not, you would go anyway, me 'calling the shots' is you hearing whether I'll go or not."

Calamity, with an evil toss of her head, asked, "Then what'll it be?"

"Well Birthday Girl, it's looking like I really don't have a choice."

"You're stuck with me then?"

"More like you're stuck with me, but the main idea is yes."

"Good, because if I get hungry enough, you're better than nothing." Calamity said with a shrug.

"My family record might just challenge that statement, Cal."

"I'd like to see a runt like you try." She laughed back, pushing his shoulder so roughly he ended up on his side. He rolled onto his back, and leaning on his elbows so he had pushed himself up to face her, he cocked his head with a toothy, evil grin.

"I've been fighting alongside you long enough to know I'd give you a run for your money now." He kicked out with his legs, kicking Cal and splashing her with water at the same time.

Sputtering and rolling, Cal jumped up and pushed the rising Toby until he was on the ground again. She grabbed her spear from where it sat nearby and ran towards the mountains laughing loudly.  
Toby kicked himself to his feet with a mischievous smile and followed, laughing with her.


	2. Chapter 2 Home is where again?

_Hey Guys! Guess what!? I'm totally back with a vengence! I stayed up until 2 in the morning writing the next two and a half chapters of the last installment of my stories! I hope you guys enjoy. P.s. I graduated high school but now I work four and a half days a week, so if i still take ages to write this one, please understand. It feels soooo good to get back into this story, I'm so excited to see how this is going to plan out. I have an even better plan than the last one, and some pretty exciting things coming up, can't wait to see what you guys will think. Please remember to leave comments, they make writing this easier and more fun too.  
_ _I have no right to the Bluesky characters or setting, but I do own my OC's so please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use them please ask me and i will be cool with it, just send me a message. Rights reserved etc._

* * *

The village at night sounded normal. Laughter from some dens, the smell of food and fire, and the comforting lights coming from them. The brush of the canyon floor was dark, as the torches had gone out in the soft rain. Rufus ran through the plants, huddled over a package he'd traded some food for, heading for the canyon sides. In this rain, he couldn't be bothered with going to the gates, the sound of it would only put off many of the residences.

He scrambled up the sides, his feet occasionally slipping, but he caught it on roots or rocks that jutted from the sides, and propelled himself back up. By the time he got to the top, he was covered in mud, but the grin on his face couldn't be broken, not even by the rain wetting his fur. His shook his head to rid of the drops getting into his eyes as he raced in the underbrush towards home.

 _Home.  
_

He laughed at himself. Home? Home! He loved the thought of that word, and what it meant. The feeling in his chest used to scare him, after he'd realised it was there. Some kind of pressure, and he was scared it was the same pressure that had been the force of rage he'd had before, long ago, as a kid. Granted, that pressure of rage and hate had saved his life a few times, but now he didn't need it.

The pressure had come back, and he'd been terrified, so terrified of himself that he'd even told Ivory. She'd laughed about it, and told him she'd had the same pressure. Together they'd realised it was just their hearts getting used to the love that now surrounded them. Their hearts almost exploding with how full they were.  
Rufus ran for what seemed to him only a few minutes, his ecstatic feeling sifting away the time.

He saw the fire's light before he heard or smelt them. The fire was clearly too hot to be affected by the light drizzle.  
He hid behind a rock first, to count the bodies and hear their voices, making sure the kits weren't still out this late. He could recognize Lucy and Buck's scent's immediately. Buck's was the strongest, and Lucy's the sweetest. There was his sister, Ruby, who's scent he knew so well. Adrian too, who's scent was not as strong but who smelt like reeds. Cabe, who had been quiet since Cal had run off, but his smell was distinctly that of berries, his favourite food.  
And Ivory. Rufus didn't know how she smelt of 'moonlight', but it was all he could describe it as. Soft, cold, like the scent itself was too apologetic to disturb his nose. He stayed there, breathing it in for a little while, before he decided that he couldn't hide for very long. Ivory's nose had already started to twitch suspiciously.

He came around from the rock, and everyone smiled when they saw him.

"You got 'em?" Buck asked kindly, his arm, as usual, draped around Lucy's shoulder.

"Yeah, and they're awesome Buck. Not as good as Jai's work, but almost." He knew they wouldn't mind Jai being mentioned, and they didn't.

"Come on then, show us!" Ruby said impatiently, grabbing for the package, but Rufus held it out of her reach.

"Fine, but we need cover, the rain'll ruin them." Rufus said.

Buck got up and walked to a nearby tree, then grabbed at a piece of bark, and with Lucy's help, pulled it away. Cabe and Buck held it up, while everyone else huddled beneath it to watch Rufus uncovering the package.

He untied it carefully, unsure of how fragile the contents were. He was clearly taking too long, because Ivory rolled her eyes and took it from him gently, unwrapping it softly but quickly. Everyone gasped slowly as the toys inside were revealed. Buck, holding up the cover with his left arm, took one softly with his right, turning it over and assessing it with his perfect eye.

"These are grea'. Just th' thing for the little ones."

"I thought things that could move would be best." Rufus answered, looking at one piece in particular. A raptor, carved out of deep brown wood, standing on a base that had wheels.

"Jai would have put the wheels directly on the feet." Adrian observed.

"Bu' he woulda used half the jungle t' get it righ'." Buck said with a laugh. Lucy had picked up an elegant wooden doll, carved into the form of a weaselette dancing on a leaf.

"Collette and Bluey are going to fight over the raptor." Cabe said.

Ruby shook her head. "Bluey will want that one to draw." She nodded to the one Lucy had.

"Melina is going to love this one." Ivory said softly, holding a delicately carved dragonfly. Even the membranes had been carved, if not a little raggedly.

"Check this one out for Tessa!" Adrian said, holding a little sword.

"Darcy's gonna flip when he sees this!" Buck said, holding a pterosaur carving.

They spent a good twenty minutes simply admiring them, and guessing which of the kits will want which toys. They then packed them back carefully, and Rufus hid them in Buck and Lucy's room. The kits never dared go in there, so it was the safest idea.

It was late at night, and Adrian and Cabe went to bed, Ruby following suit. When Ruby had started going to bed early, Rufus had worried, not sure what was going on. Again, he'd said this to Ivory, and again she'd assured him it wasn't as bad as he thought. Ruby was sleeping better than she ever had, in the Grandfather tree, and enjoyed being able to get eight hours of sleep every night, taking advantage of it. Rufus suspected she was secretly preserving. Constantly preserving energy in case she needed it. Ruby never did these things without thinking of the overall benefits. She was resourceful and smart. Which also made her annoyingly bossy.  
Buck stretched on the log he was leaning against, then placed his arms behind his head, Lucy curled up to his chest. Rufus marvelled at their love, and how strangely intact it was. How could they possibly go through all this, and still be the same with each other? They'd been hunted, stabbed, ridiculed and held as heroes. Their children were crazy and famous, and had run off to the other side of the world, and yet they still held onto each other like vines onto a tree.

Ivory sat next to him, knees pulled up to her chest and half lidded eyes staring at the fire. Rufus rested his head against the log behind him, putting an arm up to rest on it. The rain had stopped without him noticing, and he breathed in the freshly earthy scent of the trees soaking it in. The healthiness of it all. How _alive_ everything felt.

After a while he felt himself drifting off, but didn't worry a bit. He felt Ivory shift next to him, and he cracked an eye open to look at her.

She had curled up on the ground, clearly like him, feeling safe enough to sleep out in the open.

Instinctively, Rufus looked at Buck.

Buck was looking out to the jungle, with Lucy fast asleep against him. His eye was hard, and very much in the present.

"Something wrong Buck?" Rufus asked, feeling his wakefulness come back at the possibility of danger.

"No. Jus'…" he looked at the two sleeping girls. "Maybe, no' tonight."

"You don't think it's a good idea?"

Buck took a while to respond, then slowly shook his head. Then he cracked a smile.  
"We only jus' go' those presents for the kits. Be a shame if we go' eaten before we could give 'em to 'em."

Rufus laughed quietly. "I dunno. Circle of life. Dino's gotta eat too."

"Even your precious snowflake there?" Buck teased.

"Pffft, what about your honey dew-drop?" Rufus teased back, though it wasn't strictly impacting.

Buck tickled his mates nose gently, and smiled at her rubbing the feeling away in her sleep. "She can take care of herself."

"So can Ivory." Rufus said back, a little more defensively than he'd intended. Buck looked at him, tilted head.

"You're righ' of course. I suppose you couldn't 'ave protected her the whole way through tha' fight."

"I almost died a few times trying to get to her."

"We all almos' died a few times tryin' t' get t' someone." Buck said, and then looked again out into the jungle.  
Rufus did too, ears flicking as he stared into the darkness. Unsettled, he stood quietly.  
"I'm getting Ivory inside." He announced.

"Righ' behind ya." Buck said, standing as Rufus stooped and gently gathered Ivory into his grip. Buck had to stoop lower to grab Lucy, and Rufus saw some glints of the whit-silver hairs that were growing on his muzzle in the firelight.

"I can come back and get Lucy if you want Buck." Rufus said.

As if to prove a point, Buck hoisted Lucy up as if she were a child, and comfortable settled her in his arms, and he didn't shudder a whisker doing it. But the look in his eye made Rufus spine stiffen, as if a threat were nearby, and he quickly retreated into the trees chambers.

He made his way to Ivory's room, and found it in the dark. He made his way to her bed, and laid her down, pushing the covers aside so he could drag them back over her again. When he tucked her in, he turned to leave quickly before he ended up staring at her for what was left of the light.

Something snagged on his paw, and he saw it was her soft paw on his. Well, they had been soft long ago, but now they were tougher, developed for the world around her like she had. He looked down at her, and her eyes were slightly open.

"Come on, stay with me." She mumbled, barely awake.

"Buck'll have my head." Rufus said, though he wasn't sure if that was true. Buck was unpredictable about these things.

"So, the only reason you won't is because of Buck?"

"Is there any other reason that should exist?"

"Being a gentleman perhaps." She said, slightly more awake.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and smirk, and she giggled slightly into her blankets (from Sasha's old stash, naturally), and Rufus felt himself blush under his fur at how cute it had been.

"Please stay. Everything's so…" She trailed off, and he got what she meant. Things were great, apart from the fact that they didn't know if Jai, Calamity and Tobiah were still alive. A hidden, dangerous shard in a pool of murky water. They were walking blind to the fact of where they were.

"Murky." Rufus said.

Ivory smiled. "Never knew you were the poetic type."

Rufus snorted. "And you never will."

She giggled again, and Rufus slowly knelt next to her bed.

"I can stay here if you want." He said, but she shook her head. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to sit next to her on the bed.  
Rufus' heart was bashing in his chest, and he wasn't sure what he was feeling. Was it fear, of Buck bursting in and cutting off Rufus' head for even thinking of sleeping in the same room as Ivory? Buck would've never slept in the same bed as a girl at Rufus' age.

 _I'm not Buck._

Rufus' jaw clenched in shame. He was eighteen and unfortunately, he could remember things he'd done at age fifteen and sixteen. Scandalous things, with other girls. Things that maybe Ivory wouldn't be surprised about, but certainly maybe more guarded in situations like this.

"Ivory I…I'm just gonna go to my own bed." He said, and seeing Ivory's sad, confused look, he came up with a valid excuse. "I think the kits would be confused if they…they might get the wrong idea, you know."

"What would be the wrong idea?" Ivory asked.

Rufus wasn't sure how to answer, so he only said, "Goodnight."

He left her room and went slowly to his own. He heard a shuffle and looked down the length of the tunnel, and saw Buck standing in the doorway to his and Lucy's chamber, the only one with a door.

When they met gaze's, Buck nodded approvingly, then went back to Lucy and closed the door.  
Rufus rubbed the back of his neck, confused, annoyed, proud, confused again. He decided sleep was the best thing for it, and entered his room, finding it empty of anyone else, and the sight left him feeling empty as well. During the weeks they had been escaping from the village, he, Ivory, Ruby and the kits had all slept in one pile, for warmth and comfort. Of all the people to miss such a feeling, Rufus knew he was the last.  
And yet here he was, missing it.


	3. Chapter 3 On ward and Downward

_Cold. I'm so friggin cold._

Calamity swore in her mind, because her jaws were shivering too much to swear out loud. At least the wind had died down, so the ice didn't slash at her face with a vengeance, wanting to blind her and drive her back.

 _Jeez, I never knew that snow was so friggin cold._

For the seventh hundred time, she felt the arm that was gripping hers, and found Toby's moving shoulder. They were moving together as a mass, but she still worried that either he or herself would wander into the blinding, angry white and lose the other, even though they had frozen together where their arms twirled around each other.

"Cal!" Toby said loudly, over what was left of the wind.

She looked at him, shielding her eyes from whipping snow. Toby pointed, and she looked down the length of his arm, past his clawed finger, to the deep, dark gap between two parts of the mountain.

 _Finally! Shelter!_

Without saying anything, she shouldered Toby in that direction, and he didn't object. If they had been anywhere else, he would insist in checking it out first for a while, to check its safety. They were cold and desperate however, so they went right in, falling into a cold dip in the ground. It wasn't very deep, but it was enough that they could curl up and get some rest.

"We m-m-might as well s-s-s-sleep it out." Toby stammered, gazing out to where the wind was still moving drifts past the entrance. He almost blended into the darkness of the cavern, and their scents filled the small space immediately.

Calamity rubbed her arms vigorously, but it felt like it was just releasing the warmth beneath her fur, so she stopped.

"Pile?" Toby asked, his shattering already slowing in the shelter.

Calamity was too tired to speak, so she nodded, and went to all fours, curling up on the hard ground. Toby watched her, then once she was comfortable, found a space around her to fit, their bodies sharing warmth and collectively keeping out the cold. He placed his head on her side, and Calamity no longer felt awkward. They were beyond things like that. He'd needed her to carry him across a river when he'd been bitten by a strange spider. Toby had needed to hold Cal down after a toxic flower had brushed against her and made her incredibly violent. She'd hauled him from ravines. He'd dragged her from quick sand pits.  
 _How could Buck do this on his own? All this?_ Toby though, as he tried to go to sleep.  
The answer was simple, because he and Cal were doing it right now.  
Desperation was their drive to survive.

* * *

When the howling and ripping ice storm had stopped was when they woke up, the quiet disturbing their dreams. Toby got up first, stepping from the small cavern and checking outside. Calamity shook herself out, fluffing her thin fur out as much as it could go, in order to trap more air and make it warm next to her skin.

"Cal! You gotta come see this!" Toby whispered in an excited voice.

Cal's ears pricked, and she crawled out on four paws, but her eyes widened as she started to leave the cavern.

"Wow." She said, and understood why Toby had been so quiet. It seemed any noise would shatter the world around them, like stone on a thinly ice-encrusted pond. The air was still, but the snow was falling so incredibly slowly that it was hard to see it moving at all. Tiny, miniscule dots of white just hanging in the air around them. Toby looked like he had baby stars on his pelt, and Cal laughed cheerfully at the sight.

"Do I look like the night sky?" Toby said, twirling.

"More like that you've got bad dandruff." Calamity said, forgetting the starlight thought.

"You're one to talk, your whole belly is already white." Toby mumbled back. Cal kicked her foot up, sending an explosion of snow into the rat's face, and laughed as he tried running from it, but tripped on a stone in the snow, and fell face down. Toby quickly jumped up with a yell, and curled into himself, trying to gain warmth back into his limbs.

Calamity looked past him, and gasped. "Toby, look!"

Toby pouted at her, and then turned to where she was pointing.

Some clouds and mist had shifted in rising warm winds, and revealed the site beyond.

Toby's ears perked. "Yes! Cal, we're nearly there!"

Cal pushed her way through the snow to be level with him, looking down the snow-covered slope.

"I can see the base!" She said in excitement.

She felt a tap on her arm, and turned to see Toby staring beyond the base of the mountain. She followed his gaze, and both of their faces twisted into grins.

"It's green!" They yelled together, throwing their paws in the air.

Past the drifts, the snow, and the last perilous side of the mountain, was greenery. Jungles and forests.

"A river!" Toby pointed, his keen rat eyes picking out the long glittering snake before Cal could, but she found it leaving the mountains base and flowing down to the flatlands beyond.

"Dinos!" Cal said, but it was her ears that identified them before her eyes. They sounded normal, ones she could recognize. It was so relieving, she simply smiled about it.

"Where there's dinos, there's food." Toby said.

"And now we know there's water as well." Cal said, both of them coming to a silent agreement.

 _Jai's still alive. He has to be. If the runt and I made it across those mountains, he would have too._

"We better move, before the weather goes bad again." Toby said, and Cal nodded.

Reinvigorated by the sight of their goal in front of them, they pushed through the snow, occasionally finding spots frozen enough that they could walk on the top.

As usual, they saved each other a few times a day.

Cal almost stepped into a hidden ravine, but Toby sensed the empty ground, and hauled her back as her right leg left the edge. The snow fell away and dropped into the dark cut in the ground, going so far that it disappeared before they saw it hit the bottom.  
A small avalanche started in the warmth of the day, compared to the usual frigid temperature, and Calamity managed to tackle Toby to the cover under some rocks as the snow crashed around them.

By the time the sunlight started to disappear again, they were more tired than they'd been for days, after trekking such a distance. Cal left Toby resting behind a small jutting rock, just enough to cover him, as she went to search for shelter. Travelling at night on this mountain had been a dangerous decision before, and despite how much Cal didn't want to, they would have to look for a safe place to sleep instead of continuing in the dark. She dug away at rock walls and picked her way carefully on a collection of boulders. She finally found a gap in the snow that indicated a break in the rocks, and pushed out the snow, highly aware of how fast the temperature was dropping. They were so close to the above ground world here that she could see the ice above them that was the gap between world. Usually it was hidden by clouds, but this night it was frighteningly close.

She finally dug enough to get a good look at the gap. Like the last one, it was small, but it had overhanging cover where the other one hadn't really had so much as a sloping ramp above them. She crawled in, and tested the ground, but it turned out to be solid. She picked away some dirt into her paws, and started walking out again, leaving a trail of dirt behind her as she made her way back to Toby, following her old footprints. In some areas where the snow had collapsed, it was difficult to tell what was footprint or simply an imprint. Cal knew better than to just rely on her prints however, and recognized a rock formation nearby, knowing she was close. The dirt was only a precaution, even more helpful since it wasn't snowing just yet.

She ran out of dirt by the time she found Toby. He was leaning against the rocks, his head rested against his shoulder, sleeping. Cal's fur ridged along her spine, and she shook him violently.

"Toby, wake up!" She snapped, and he opened his eyes. She let out a sigh of relief. "Jeez, don't fall asleep alone out here."

"Sorry Cal," he said, rubbing his eyes, "I'm just so tired."

"That's the cold doing it on purpose." Cal said. "It makes you so weak you fall asleep, and then it crushes you with a rock fall or something."

"You're saying the cold has a conscience?" Toby said with a laugh.

Cal pushed his shoulder with a grin. "Not the cold, runt, the mountain."

For some reason, the comment seemed to unsettle Toby, and he stayed silent as he followed Calamity to the small cave, following the dirt. He looked at the trail she had left.

"That was affective, good thinking Cal." He observed.

"Dad always made sure we knew how to track our way back home." Cal answered with a shrug.

"I would have tried to remember images." Toby said, admiring the almost-genius of using the dirt as a trail.

Cal shrugged again. "I could do that too, but it's better to be certain up here. Back home, you can know a general direction and find your way back no matter what, but here it's different."

"Naturally you're right." Toby mumbled.

Calamity smiled at him, and then disappeared behind a small rock face covered in snow. When Toby followed her around it, he found that she'd discovered a small cavern.

"Home sweet home." Calamity said gloomily, and curled up into the hard ground. Toby found his space next to her, and they sighed against the dropping temperatures.

"I miss the warmth." Calamity said quietly, and Toby knew she wasn't talking about the weather.

"I miss them too, Cal." He answered. "We'll find Jai and convince him to come back with us."

Calamity curled into herself tighter. "I want mum."

The comment took Toby a little by surprise. First of all, Calamity was the last person on the earth to go 'I want my mummy'. And second, she'd said it about Lucy, not Buck. Calamity and Lucy got along of course, but it seemed Jai was always the mummer's boy, while Cal preferred her fathers company. Toby had always preferred Lucy though, her calm demeanour never frightened him.

And Toby realised that was why. Cal wanted her mum's calm, confident warmth. Her father was brave and crazy, but in situations like this…it wasn't always the best.

"What's it like, having a mum?" Toby asked.

Calamity's eyes snapped open, and she looked at him. "I don't know how to explain it. I've always had one…"

"Okay, then what's it like having Lucy as a mum?" he knew the question was more specific, and maybe easier to answer.

Cal smiled. "It's like... she would be the last one to go bad. Do you know what I mean?"

For some reason, he did. "Your family's a fire, and if someone were to poor water on it, she would be the last ember burning."

"Yeah, like that."

Toby could see the last straw of something, some final tragedy to happen to the Wilde family, and he could see one by one, them turning bad and becoming something scary and heartless. He didn't want to think it could happen, but he knew it could. Just one more push, and they would all be going over the edge, exceptLucy.

"Why did you come along with me Toby?" Cal whispered, her eyes drooping closed again.

Toby thought about it, long and hard. It wasn't that he didn't have an answer, it was that he had too many.

"For an adventure." He said.

She laughed silently, her shoulders shuddering with it. "When this is over, you can give it a rating."

He smiled. "It's already a ten."

"I could give you too many reasons as to how that's wrong." Cal deadpanned.

"It's meant to be an adventure, not a vacation."

By the way, she didn't say anything back, Toby knew he'd got her. It was a few moments before he realised it was actually because she had fallen asleep.  
He smiled again, before falling asleep himself.

* * *

Something woke Calamity in the night, and she raised her head from the warm oasis she and Toby had created by being crushed together so tightly. Her ears pricked up, and she felt some dirt fall onto her nose. She shook it off, and realised her movement had woken Toby up. He yawned, and then paused, his ears pricking as well.  
Some more dirt fell, and Calamity felt a slight vibration beneath her paws.

"Quick get out!"

"We gotta go!"

They had spoken at the same time, but didn't bother to laugh about it, because they bolted from the cavern so fast that they left scratches in the ground. Just as they were retreating outside, the roof collapsed in the cavern, a few tons of dirt, rock and snow crushing where they had been sleeping. The movement dislodged the snow and some boulders around it, and the now-familiar of a rumble of a beginning avalanche shook the side of the mountain.

"Goddammit, not again!" Calamity growled, looking over her shoulder as she and Toby leaped through the snow as fast as they could. In some places, the snow almost came up to their shoulders.

"Why are we so _small!_ " she said in annoyance, but didn't stop retreating. She felt a large shudder behind her, and didn't need to look back to know that the snow and dirt was already following her and Toby down the perilous mountain side. She could hear it.

She checked next to her to see Toby, and he was pelting as hard as he could, face twisted into furious concentration, looking out for obstacles, but he was falling behind. His legs and body weren't as long as hers, and he couldn't stretch as far across the snow.

Every time she looked, her was further behind.

Then, she heard him cry out, and stopped immediately turning back to see what had happened.

Some snow beneath a glacier had given way, and a pile of ice and snow had fallen onto him, his body half trapped. He began digging so fast that his paws were a blur, but it wasn't fast enough. Cal bounded back to him, and grabbed both his arms in a monkey grip, and heaved with all the strength she had left in her body. He came free immediately, and only had to stumble a little before they resumed running, bits of snow and shards of it raining around them as they exploded from the front of the avalanche.

"A cliff!" Calamity yelled, recognizing the sudden drop before them.

"I'll be grip!" Toby yelled, and they didn't have time to argue about it. Calamity fell slightly behind, her heart-beat becoming unbearably fast. She didn't think her body could take much more of this. Her sides were killing her. She didn't have any time to dwell on it, because they were coming up on the cliff. Toby slid the last few feet, then gripped the edge with his claws as hard as possible, and Calamity slid just after him, throwing her arm towards him. He caught it with his free arm, and swung her towards the cliff wall. She found a small enough piece of jutting rock, and landed on it. She secured her stance, and then nodded to Toby. He let go of the cliff edge and dropped in next to her. They both dropped to all fours and entwined their arms as they crouched, waiting for the snow to crash above them.  
They felt some of the cliff edge above them give way as it was hit with hundreds of tons of debris and snow, that cascaded past them, to the snowy sides below them.

Cal hid her face in Toby's shoulder, and he hid his face in hers, both pressing against the cliff side for dear life.

It seemed ages before the crashing and thundering calmed, and left the mountain silent as usual. The blue darkness of night around them was eerily sinister. Panting, they both looked out beyond their safe spot, but couldn't see much clearly, apart from the whiteness of snow.

"I hate this mountain." Cal mumbled.

"Don't say that, you'll make it angry." Toby said, already looking for footholds to get back up to solid (well, sort of solid) ground.

"Who's saying it has a conscience now?" Cal teased at him, and he flicked his skinny tail at her face in response. She followed his footholds and they both made it back up safely.

"Should we just keep going then?" Toby asked.

Calamity, trying to catch her breath after the ordeal, looked around. She peered over the edge again.  
"We're only a few miles up now, we should push through until we reach level ground." She answered. "Small breaks only. Look how much we came down tonight alone." She looked back up the way they had come, and Toby found she was right. He could at least guess where they had been before, and it was far up the side.  
He groaned, feeling his muscles start to cease up again in the cold. He must have pulled every one of them running down, and the added bonus of being the grip on the cliff edge. Luckily, they'd been doing so much of this kind of thing lately that he was now strong enough to carry Cal, and Cal was strong enough to carry him. Their grips too, had improved.

"Not bad eh?" Cal said, putting her hands on her hips, nodding at the distance they had covered.

"Yeah but we haven't eaten in a week." Toby said to her, but she waved away the comment, and the movement was so 'Buck' that Toby rolled his eyes.

"Alright, so down the cliff or round the sides?" he asked.

"Straight down is quicker, and it looks like there's plenty of grips. But…" she trailed off.

"We'd only be safe from avalanches close to top." Toby finished.

Calamity only took a few moments to decide. "Sides it is."  
Toby followed her as she walked away from the cliff edge, and towards the more study sides around it, and made their way down carefully.


	4. Chapter 4 Squeals of Joy, Screaming Rage

_Hey guys, I'm thinking that I'm going to structure these as one chapter with Cal and Toby, and the next back at the family, just to even it out. This ones longer than the last couple have been, so I'll try make the next one just as long. Hope you guys enjoy, just remember I do Not own any rights to Bluesky, but my Original characters are my own._

* * *

The underground was barely grey with morning before Collette, Darcy, Bluey, Tessa, Melina and Coby woke up together, all snuggled with blankets and toys made of twigs and leaves.

"Come on Collette." Darcy said, trying to pull his little sister out of bed, while the others watched, but she only shrugged him off.

"I don't want to." She whined, turning her face away. Tessa walked up, and poked her sister in the back with a stick. Collette only shrunk away from that too.

"What's wrong Collie?" Tessa said, dropping the stick and coming closer. She realised Collette was shivering.

"It's too _cold._ "  
All five other siblings frowned. Cold. Tessa looked at Coby, Bluey and Darcy, all who shrugged in a similar way to Rufus.

"But it's not cold at all." Melina said, blinking at her triplet.

Tessa thought about it. She didn't want to get Ruby this time. Ruby always got worried. Rufus, too. Ivory would only tell them. Buck would only try encouraging her out of bed, maybe making her angry. Her moods were unpredictable when she was like this, and Tessa didn't like her being upset.

And besides, today was their birthday.

"I'm getting Lucy." Tessa announced. The others only nodded in response. She made her way past them and into the tunnel, comforted by the bit of light that was coming in from outside, albeit only being _just_ enough. She made her way cautiously towards Buck and Lucy's chamber, hesitating at the door. She couldn't hear anything on the other side. None of this family snored, not like their mother had. She lightly pushed on the door, and it didn't creak as it opened, so she made her way inside. She went to the left side of the bed first, trying to see who it was.

The strong scent of dirt and decaying leaves reached her nose, and she knew it was Buck, just to check, she moved to the head.

She had to stifle a gasp when she saw him.

Where his patch usually was, there was scarred area where an eye should have been. The more she looked at it however, the less horrific it seemed.

She made her way back around to the other side, to the sweeter scent of tree sap and flowers. It was the nicest smell in the den. Tessa made her way to Lucy's side, but her back was turned, her head rested on Buck's shoulder as they slept together. Tessa would have to climb up onto the bed. She hesitated, but then remembered Collette's shivering. She took a deep breath, then scrambled up the pile of leaves and cloth. It was less of a bed and most of a nest, really, not supported by rocks or piece of log like the others was. Calamity's bed was stuffed in between some roots, Jai had made a sort of frame to contain all the dirt that was the padding for his. Ivory had feathers, leaves and cloth all pushed into the corner of the room where she would either sleep on top of it or amongst it, with a singular cover. Ruby slept on the dirt floor with a singular old blanket. Rufus slept pretty much the same, but he'd dug a little into the ground. Everyone's beds were different.  
Tessa pushed Lucy's back lightly, and Lucy immediately shifted, her body recognizing foreign movement. Tessa shook her shoulder softly, and Lucy raised her head, eyes opened, to look at her.

"Oh, hey sweetie." Lucy said nicely. "Is everything okay?"

Tessa shook her head, and Lucy immediately rolled away from Buck, who frowned in his sleep.

"What's wrong?" Lucy said, trying not to sound to alarmed, to try not panic Tessa, although she was the steadiest out of the kits.

"It's Collette." Tessa said, and Lucy nodded her understanding, and took Tessa's paw softly, leaving the bed. Lucy followed Tessa down the den to the kits' room, where the four other kits were all standing around where Collette slept on one of the softest blankets.

Immediately Lucy frowned, and the others moved away as she knelt next to Collette.

"Collie, sweetie?" she asked softly, seeing that the kit was trembling, but she didn't smell like sickness.

"I'm cold." Collette answered.

Lucy thought quickly. "Can you wiggle your toes?"

Collette wiggled them with perfect function, and Lucy nodded to herself.

"I'll be right back." She said to the others, and left, but Tess a followed her out anyway.

"What's wrong with Collie?" Tessa asked. She knew sometimes adults tried to hide things from them, occasionally lying, and Tessa didn't know why. She wanted to know. So why hide it?

"I think it has something to do with her dreams. You know how she can feel bad things coming?" Lucy said, waiting for Tessa to catch up with her. Tessa nodded, liking that Lucy wasn't trying to hide things.

"It seems like something is happening in a cold place, and she can feel it. I don't know how, or even where. I have something to help her though." Lucy walked into a small chamber, smaller than all the other chambers, that smelled of fruits, plants, herbs, vines, and some strange nuts.

Lucy dug through a container made of a cut coconut shell, and pulled out a deep purple leaf.

"This should do it. Come on." Lucy held Tessa's hand again as they made their way back to the small chamber of kits, and again knelt next to Collette. She crushed the leaf between her paws, then said to Collette,

"Can you open your mouth for me?"

Collette nodded, then opened her mouth.

"Put this on your tongue, but don't swallow it, or it'll make you sick. I'll make you spit it out again in a few minutes."

Collette obeyed, putting the little bundle of purple leaf on her tongue, and let it sit there for a while.

Tessa and Bluey watched her, while the others got bored and started drawing patterns in the floor of their chamber with sticks of charcoal.

After a little while of Lucy just brushing Collette's hair lightly, she told her to spit it out again, and put the leftover leaf in another leaf to wrap up, planning to throw it out later. Or maybe bury it, to stop the other from trying to taste it. Kids tried strange things.  
A few minutes later, Collette stopped shivering, and sat up in bed, looking at her arms.

"It's gone?" she looked at Lucy, who nodded with a smile.

"It's Benzo, a plant that makes people sleep better when its juices are diluted. In other cases, stronger, it calms down people hallucinating from poisons. I have a feeling it can stop your visions."  
Collette's eyes widened, and she smiled, then hugged Lucy tightly.

"Thank you!" she said, and Lucy gave her a hug and kiss on the head.

"Okay, do you want to go wake the others, it is you birthdays after all!" Lucy said, and they all cheered.

"Buck first!" said Darcy, who liked Buck the most.

"Don't you think you should get Rufus and Ruby first?" Lucy suggested. They cheered again, and ran from the room. She knew the noise would have woken Buck, and he would be tying his patch back on. Lucy didn't think any of the kits had seen him without his patch on, and wasn't sure what they would think of it. Jai and Cal had found out when they were younger than these kits, and Cal had teased him about it while Jai had simply stared, so it was hard to guess how they could all react.  
Just as she guessed, she left the kits' room and found him leaving their own room, patch on.

"Mornin' darl." He laughed, watching as the kids went to Rufus' room first, and the sound of Rufus grunting as one jumped onto his belly as he slept.

"Ouch guys!"

Lucy laughed, and greeted Buck with a kiss.

"Collie had another vision." She said in a low voice.

Buck frowned and sighed. "She okay?"

Lucy nodded. "I gave her some Benzo, it calmed her down. Buck, she was shivering, as if in snow."

"Wha' the-…" Buck said, looking at her, and she knew he was taking note of the warm temperature around them.

He looked past her to the exit, and the outside world, and she knew he was making a map in his head, showing Canine Mountains with a big red circle around it.

"You think they crossed the range?" Lucy asked, glancing at the kits dragging Rufus to Ruby's room, making sure none of them were listening.

"I swear love, if they crossed those mountains when I couldn', I'm givin' 'em a medal!" He said in annoyance, although Lucy knew that inside he was just as worried as she was. He was just the better liar.

"They've never seen snow before, let alone trekked in it." Lucy said.

"'Bout time though. The ultimate test." Buck said, winking.

"Buck!" She said harshly, and he dropped the grin.

"Sorry love. Bu'…I seriously think they're fine. I don' know how, I jus'…"

Lucy nodded, trusting his instincts, and her own as well. Collette hadn't had a horrible nightmare, she'd just been shivering, giving them a good idea as to where Cal and Toby were.

"They make a good team, Cal and Toby." Lucy said, and Buck smiled.

"Too righ' they do. Now come on, the kits are driving Ruby nuts."

* * *

It only took the kits a few minutes to wake everyone up. Adrian had Darcy and Coby attached to an arm and leg, hobbling down the tunnel, his fur mussed in many places and his eyes showing he was still half asleep. Ivory arrived, with Collette hanging onto her back. Ruby had Bluey and Tessa, while Rufus had Melina on his shoulders. While buck, Lucy, Ruby, Rufus, Adrian and Ivory took the kits out to get a breakfast going, Cabe went and fetched Jessica, Trudy, and Abu's family.

The kits had never had a decent birthday, nor had they ever gotten a good present. Even their birthday day was made up, because Ruby and Rufus had been too young to remember the day, so they made it up years later, and made it a birthday for all of them, so they only had to remember one day, instead of eight.

As the kits played tag on the edge of the jungle, Buck, Adrian and Ruby went fishing, while Lucy, Ivory and Rufus went collecting fruit and herbs.

"So, Buck," Ruby said, holding a fishing three-pronged spear above her shoulder, "Do you and Lucy have birthdays?"

She stepped around a rock that looked like it could be hiding a nasty crab.

"Nope, jus' the kids. I never knew mine, neither did Jai, my brother. We never really cared." Buck's arm snapped out, and his spear pierced a fish's head, killing it instantly.

Ruby shivered in the water. She wasn't used to being in the river this long, and it had soaked into her fur. Luckily it was a warm day. She spotted a fish, but it saw her shadow before she could move against it, and it sped off. Adrian stabbed it while it passed him, and he threw it into the basket he had on his back.

"You, Adrian?" She asked.

He shook his head. "We didn't care either."

Ruby cocked her eyebrow up, but didn't say anything.

"Do you think the kits are going to be uncomfortable with so many mammals around, or will they be alright?" Adrian asked her.

She laughed. "No, they love everyone now. Especially Abu and his son. Trudy's always giving them rides on her raptor. They'll go nuts when they found out everyone's coming over just for them."

"Not jus' for them, for you two kiddo." Buck said, and Ruby remembered it was her 'birthday' as well.

"Eh it's mainly for them." she shrugged.

"Don' be so sure." Buck said with a grin, and grabbed something from out of the bag slung over his shoulder, the one without the fish. "Here."  
He flicked something in her direction, and she caught it with her free hand. She gazed at it, turning it over in her hand, rubbing her thumb over it. She heard Adrian and Buck chuckling as they moved further into the river, but Ruby had stopped dead, the water moving around her.  
It was a pendant, a strange piece of stone, red and orange, and smooth as a cloud-less sky. It was curved like a miniature basin. There had been a small hole punctured into it, and a piece of string made into the tie, adjustable.

 _Why is it I never know what to say?_ She couldn't even say thank you. It would sound empty, ingenuine. Instead, she stabbed the spear into the river bed, and put it on immediately, hanging it around her neck and staring at it for a bit longer.

"Hey Ruby, you comin' or what? We'll ge' all the fish an' you'll miss out!" Buck called, so she quickly grabbed her spear and caught up with them.

 _I still don't know how to say thank you. How is it so hard?_ She kept her head down and looked out for fish, but her mind was far away, and she let one slip past her.

"You okay Ruby?" Adrian asked. "You barely even flinched after that one."

Ruby laughed. "It was just lucky."

Buck and Adrian glanced at each other in a way that said they knew she was lying. Ruby looked away, and kept going down the river, keeping her head down.  
They followed silently, and she knew that if she wasn't there they would have been talking about her. It kind of pissed her off.

"If you've got anything to say to me," She said darkly, "don't be afraid."

"You say that in a way that sounds more like 'be afraid.'" Adrian said back, leaning against his fishing spear.

Her ears dropped, realising she sounded ungrateful. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what did you mean?"

"…that you're thinking about me, and I don't like it." She said, unable to change how it sounded.

Buck laughed. "After a whole life o' no' being thought abou', the moment someone does I', you go all defensive." He waved his hands in the air when he said 'defensive', and Ruby poked her tongue out at him.

"That's not what I meant either. You were judging me."

"About what?" Adrian asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know, you tell me." She said back, and Adrian's laugh took her by surprise. She wasn't sure if she'd ever heard him laugh like that.

"We weren't judging you, just thinking about you." He said, shaking his head.

"So you were pitying me." She growled.

"No' necessarily." Buck answered, smiling in a strange way.

"What!?" she asked, snapping a little. _Goddammit, why am I like this?_ Something didn't feel right inside her, like a rock in her belly had been dislodged.

Buck shrugged. "Ya jus' scared is all."

That really made her frown. "Scared? Of what?"

"Of us." Adrian answered.

"I am not! I could beat you fair and square." She said, crossing her arms, one of her paws still gripping the fishing spear.

"We're not talking about being afraid of us fighting you." Adrian said, and he and Buck shared a smile.

"Yeah right!" She snapped back, and felt her muscles tense. Buck would be likely to tackle her into the water to prove a point. On land, she might have been able to at least trick her way out of it; they would go easy on her, but they were better at fighting in the water than on land. She'd seen Buck and Rufus sparring on the river stones before, and Buck won every time, even holding back.

"Go on, take ya fish an' head back to Lucy." Buck said, waving her away with a smile. Ruby, still suspicious, backed out of the water to the bank, watching them carefully, but they turned away and continued searching the water. Thirty metres into the jungle on her way back to the Grandfather tree, she hid behind a rock, waiting for them to follow her. It only took her five minutes to figure out they didn't intend to ambush her here.

 _What was that all about?_ She thought, reimagining the scene again and again, looking for clues.  
When she went back to the fireplace, a black scorch in the jungle clearing after years and years of use, she found Lucy already there.

"Lucy, Buck's being weird again." Ruby said, dropping her basket of fish.

Lucy smiled. "It was the necklace wasn't it?"

"What? No, I- the necklace is great, I really like it. I just-they started being weird around me, and said something about me being scared. He was just being weird."

Lucy sighed with a smile, shaking her head, and skewering some fruit onto a stick. "He's a good liar, Buck, but he's not so great at giving someone a straight answer."

"You can say that again." Ruby said.

"What did you say when he gave you the necklace?"

Ruby paused as she knelt next to the fish basket. "Uh…"

Lucy laughed. "That'll be it."

"What will?" Ruby said, standing back up.

"He was right. He scared you."

"No he didn't." Ruby said, feeling even more confused.

"What's going on?" Rufus had arrived, carrying two nets of fruit, Ivory hauling a third one behind him, both of them smiling.

"Lucy and Buck are being weird!" Ruby said, harsher than she meant.

Rufus frowned. "You mean more than usual."

" _Way_ more than usual. They gave me a necklace and they keep saying something about me being scared or something."

Ivory, surprisingly, laughed, making Rufus frown. It was only then that Ruby realised Rufus was wearing an arm guard with stones similar to the one hanging around her neck tied into it.

"Now you're being weird." Ruby said to Ivory, who was sharing a look with Lucy.

Ivory rolled her eyes, dropped her net of fruit, and pulled Ruby into a hug.

Ruby tensed so tight that her muscles hurt with the effort, and her heart started beating as if she had spotted a raptor in the brush. Rufus was staring at Ivory as if he was the one being hugged, and Ruby imagined her expression looked quite the same. Startled, confused.

The dislodged feeling inside of her increased, as if someone was knocking against her rib from the inside.

Eventually, her body started to relax, and her eyes started to burn.

 _What the-?  
_

She gave Ivory a small squeeze back, and it was enough to have Ivory let go of her, and Ruby backed off.

"You're all cracked in the head." Rufus deadpanned. "I'm starting the fire."

* * *

Later, Cabe came back with half a crowd of weasels. Trudy, Jessica, Abu, Abu's wife Faye, and Abu's eight-year-old son Bo. Trudy brought some of her young raptors that had been fully trained, and the kits squealed when they saw them, then calmed when the raptors skittered at the sound. As Buck and Trudy helped the kits ride around on the raptors, Abu, Faye, and Ivory prepared the special breakfast. Rufus, Ruby, Cabe and Adrian played their own game of ball while they waited, with nothing really to do. Ruby felt better doing something, having competition to give her energy, no matter how small. She threw the ball to her brother, who caught it expertly and tossed it over Cabe's head with a flick of the wrist, and it fell through the home-made hoop Jai had carved when he was twelve, with Buck's help.

"You guys are good." Adrian said. He'd seen them play before, but had never really payed attention to how well they worked together in the game.

Ruby retrieved the ball from where it was bouncing across the dirt. "We played a lot with the other neighbourhood kids before the kits came along."

"Didn't they bully you or something?" Cabe asked.

Ruby shook her head, bouncing the ball over. "No, we just distanced ourselves when we started having to find food for a whole brood instead of ourselves."

"We still had a few friends, but they were dodgy like us." Rufus said, taking another goal while he had no competition. "Our main enemy was Cal."

"Yeah," Ruby said with a smile. "I almost miss it."

"When was the last time you saw your friends?" Cabe asked.

Ruby and Rufus both frowned.

"They're not our friends anymore." Rufus said.

"Why not?" Adrian asked.

"Once they found out we were living with Buck and Lucy…" Ruby trailed off, then she shrugged. "They were fake anyway. They liked us because we were just as messed up as them. Thieves, liars, fighters. They thought they were the toughest next to us."

"So, when was the last time you saw your _Mum?"_ Cabe asked.

"When was the last time you saw yours?" Rufus said back, and they both stared at each other for a while, a silent battle waging.

"Come and get breakfast!" Ivory called, so the ball, and conversation, were dropped. The kits leaped from the raptors, which Buck and Trudy tied up.

Fish large and small had been cooked over the fire, while fruit and berries lay on a leaf, skewered by light sticks. A carved bowl held nuts and roots, which was picked at throughout the morning. Oak-eye came from the jungle at the smell of food, so Buck hacked off a chunk of fish and fed it to the friendly raptor.

"Haven' seen you for a week or so buddy." Buck said, patting him with a smile while the raptor ate. "Ya look good."

"Lucy, Buck's talking to dinos again." Cabe said, throwing a blackberry into his mouth.  
Buck glared at him, then whispered to Oak-eye, "Ignore 'im, he's an unbeliever."

The kits laughed at Buck, so he pretended Oak-eye was talking back to him, using the raptors chewing jaw to time the speech, leaving the kids half-spitting their food out of their mouths in laughter.

"This fish is amazing Ivory!" Ruby said, taking a particularly tasty bite.

"Thanks." Ivory said kindly, taking her own piece. "I still have a few things I learnt from the above-ground females. Fish was rarer up there, so they made sure it was worth every bite."

"True that." Rufus said, licking his paws of the leftover juices.

"Don't inflate her ego too much or she'll start talking like Buck." Adrian said, and they all laughed as Buck threw a fish bone in Adrian's direction.

The kits ate their fill, and Rufus made sure they sat for a while to let the food settle in their bellies before they ran around half the jungle and threw it all up again.

"Bluey I swear if you try sneaking off again one more time, you're not getting your present." He said, dragging Bluey back from where he'd tried sneaking behind the log the others sat on. At the word 'present', all six of the kits turned their heads and stared at him. Ruby growled and whacked her brother on the back of the head.

"Great, now look what ya did!"

"Calm down sis, look!" Rufus pointed, rubbing his head. From inside the burrow, Buck and Lucy emerged with the package of presents, and another one from Abu's family. They had decorated it with flowers, and as they set the parcel down, gave each of the kits a flower to put on their heads, everyone laughing at their squeals and giggles of excitement.

"Go on then, open 'em, but be careful." Buck said.

The kits leaped onto the leaf-wrapping like a swarm of piranhas on a piece of meat. They removed the wrapping in a matter of second, and gasped at the toys inside. As they predicted, Bluey picked the dancing weaselette, while Tessa immediately started swinging the sword. Melina sat with the dragonfly, making buzzing noises while moving it around her, while Collette ran the raptor back and forth across the ground. Coby was spinning a wooden spinning top on the harder parts of the ground, watching it with a mesmerised expression. Darcy was running quickly, making squawking noises with the pterosaur in hand.

Bo presented them the presents from Abu; six small sets of leather armour and a few shields.

"I'm sure they'll make th' weapons themselves." Abu said quietly to Buck, who winked, both of them knowing that a toy sword or a wayward stick would suffice as a weapon. All children got to an age of whacking things roughly, and Abu had at least provided them with some protection to limit the amount of inevitable tears.

After an hour of playing with their new toys, and having a few small games of ball, Rufus sat down, needing a break from the excitement. Buck sat down next to him, rubbing the places the kits had hung on to him, challenging him to a playfight or game.

"Whoo. I need a breather." He said, stretching against the log. Rufus had never realised how often Buck stretched, but it seemed to be an awful lot. This had to be a reason behind his still very nimble body. He may have been past his prime, but he could still easily beat mammals much younger than himself, though Rufus had almost bested him a few times recently. He tried not to glance at the large scar in Buck's front, where the sword had pinned him to a tree months ago.

"You get tired easily, for a great adventurer." Rufus said with a smirk.

"Runnin' through the jungle is a breeze compared t' hangin' ou' with kids." Buck said, stabbing his knife into the ground.

"Were Cal and Jai this much work?" Rufus asked.  
Buck thought about it, mouth twisted to the right. "Cal, yeah. Similar t' Tessa. Jai always entertained 'imself though. He liked games, bu' only for short times before he jus' wanted to pick flowers with Lucy." He smiled, remembering something that Rufus couldn't even picture. He'd never had a good imagination anyway.

"You guys never ask about our parents." Rufus said, not sure where he was going with the conversation. It seemed he and Ruby both were trying to figure out he dynamics around them now.

"I knew ya dad pretty well, and I got 'im killed." Buck said. "I don' need to know abou' ya mum, or ya past life, I know plenty about I'. Ya just as crazy as us now, so ya better get used to I'."

Rufus tilted his head back, looking at the ice sky. "Yeah. We better."

"Speaking of which guys," Trudy said, approaching them, "you might wanna explain that to her."

Trudy's eyes were fixed on a point behind them, and they turned simultaneously to see what had caught her attention.

A figure was stumbling from the jungle, and Rufus' fur stood on end.

"Ruby!" he yelled, not taking his eyes off the new arrival as he got to his feet. He felt his sister's attention shift, and just about everyone else's in the clearing. His voice must have held the familiar timber, the timber he hadn't heard for close to six months. The alarm. His sister had a similar tonne, that acted as a code.  
He heard Ruby say something to Ivory, and he wanted to turn his head to her. To reassure Ivory that it wasn't something they couldn't handle.

"Kits, come on, we'll go for a swim." He heard Ivory say, but it wasn't met with a single cheer.

 _They see her. They know she's here._

His mother leaned against a tree, heavy lidded eyes and hair messy. Even from where Rufus was standing, he recognized her scent, but surprised it wasn't doused in the fermented scent of alcohol.

Rufus stood completely still, staring at her, hearing Ivory try coaxing the kits away from the scene. He chanced a look at them, and saw something else that surprised him. They were standing like him, Tessa with her arms crossed, glaring at their mother. He could have laughed at their gutsiness.

"Kits?" his mother said. He supposed her voice was meant to be strong, but it didn't have any force. "Kits come here, give mumma a hug."

"You aren't their mother!" Ruby snapped, suddenly next to Rufus.

 _Oh great. Here we go again._ Rufus thought he'd escaped this fight, this feeling. He could feel something rise inside of him.

"You must be bonkers to come 'ere!" Buck said loudly to their mother, but with a grin. Rufus didn't even hear his mother's reply, because Buck quickly whispered to Rufus, "Keep ya head Ruf."

Rufus considered relaying the message to Ruby, but one quick glance and he knew that it would be useless. Whatever had tried rising in himself was already boiling beneath her fur.

"Get out of here!" Ruby yelled. Their mother only took more steps forward.

"I wanna see my kits!" Their mother yelled back.

"They don't wanna see _you_!" Ruby snapped.

"I just wanna see 'em on their birthday." Their mother mumbled. "I heard the faggot say youse were havin' a party."

"The _what!?_ " Ruby screeched. "Did you just-? I can't BELIEVE you! You weren't invited, you're gate crashing."

"Ruby." Lucy said from behind them. "Calm down-."

"No!" Ruby screamed. "She can't just come here, thinking we'll just forget what a terrible person she is!"

"Ruby." Rufus said, annoyed at how calm he was, annoyed with himself about what he was about to say. It obviously took his sister by surprise too, because she stopped in her hysteria.

Rufus turned to his mum, and said forcefully, "Get outta here mum. Don't ever try find us again."

"You can't keep me from my kids!"

Something moved in the corner of Rufus' eye, and he watched as Tessa stomped past him and Ruby. Ruby tried grabbing her, but Rufus grabbed her arm and she stopped short, glaring at him. Tessa walked right up to their mother, and shoved her roughly.

 _No. Not her too._ He rushed forward and gently picked Tessa up, taking her away from their mother.

When he turned around again, their mother was gone.

* * *

It didn't take much to make the kits forget the incident. Buck brought them to the river and they played water games, tossing the leather ball about and making statues from the sand on the banks. Adrian helped dig a tunnel, and they played with it for hours.

Ivory had Collette on her back while they kicked water at Cabe, who had Darcy on his. The only sight that made her remember what happened was Ruby and Rufus trying too hard to have fun. She knew the twins too long to know when they were hiding something from the other kits, and at the moment they were hiding their pain.

It got worse when the day finally ended, the guests left and the kits went to sleep.

Ruby and Rufus had an argument.

Ivory had never seen them argue in the months she'd been spending almost all day and night with them. The sound of Ruby's accusations were penetrating, and Ivory watched them without guilt behind the Grandfather tree, though she didn't dare intervene. Rufus' yelling was deep, and didn't have as much power, but Ivory still felt herself shudder while watching them at it. She'd watched them fight in a war, but had never seen them this angry, full of so much hate. She tried to tell herself that this was normal, but she knew deep down it wasn't. Ruby and Rufus had conflict with almost everyone around them, but between them was a desperate trust and need of survival, putting their partnership above all others.

What was it now that challenged that? The fact that they no longer had a desperation to survive, because they had others around them to support them? Ivory could see how that would shake them up, just like the necklace, and arm guard had. The presents that Ivory, Lucy, Buck, Cabe and Adrian had given to them. That would have sent their walls up again that Ivory and the others had worked so hard to bring down. Now? They must have just felt lost.

Eventually, they went separate ways, stomping off to opposite sides of the jungle, and Ivory felt herself tear a little, too. Which one was she going to follow? Logic said Ruby. She was Ivory's best friend. But logic also warned her of Ruby's strange anger. She knew Ruby would never hurt her physically, and she had never insulted her before, but Ivory was unsure about this whole situation as much as they were, and didn't want to take the chances. Her best bet was Rufus, who would take her presence more calmly.

While Ruby had headed towards the river, Rufus had headed into the jungle towards the North. Ivory waited a few moments before following him, a tightness in her heart.

 _Things were supposed to be getting better._

She entered the jungle, without any of her old fear. She hadn't been afraid of the dark greenery for a long while now, not with Buck's confidence boosting, Adrian's guidance and Lucy's kindness.

She followed Rufus' scent, and noticed that he started wandering back and forth, curving from east to west while still making it north.

 _This seems familiar…_

Just as she remembered why, Rufus leaped from a bush. Ivory gave a screech and tried avoiding the tackle, but he caught her with his arm and pinned her to a tree.

"This is a bad habit of yours." Rufus said in annoyance, his ears pinned to his skull.

"Well _this_ seems to be a bad habit of _yours._ " She retaliated defiantly, pushing his arms away.

He looked momentarily surprised, then dropped the expression and stepped away.

"Why are you following me again?"

"Same reason as usual." She said, her voice reflecting his. She had the urge to cross her arms, but realised that Ruby would have done that, and she didn't want to remind him of his sister at the moment, so instead she put one paw on her hip.

Rufus' chest expanded as he glared at her, paws curling into fists. Then, as if the fight had been yanked from him, he sighed and hung his head.

"You've changed."

Ivory, who hid her surprise at his change in attack, said quietly, "So have you."

"For worse or better?"

"Better." She said immediately. "Me?"

He smiled. "Better."

She bit her lip nervously. "Well, you weren't better today."

She saw his jaw tighten, and he turned away, walking slowly into the jungle. "I was fine. It was Ruby who overstepped."

Ivory followed without hesitating. "Lucy was right. And Buck, and Adrian."

"Right about what?" Rufus said, stopping to look at her, confused and defensive.  
Ivory rubbed her arm, feeling her head duck a little, but when she remembered she had no reason to fear others anymore, she stood her full height again. "She's just scared. So are you."

Rufus' breathing increased, and a strange expression came upon him, as if he was in pain, or fighting an internal battle, and Ivory had no idea what was going through his head, when usually she did.

She jumped slightly when he went to his knees, gripping his head with his claws roughly. Alarmed, Ivory knelt in front of him, pulling his clawed-fingered hands away from his head.

Before she could say anything, Rufus whispered only one thing:

"I know."


	5. Chapter 5 Seeing on the Other Side

_Here we are with the next Cal and Toby chapter. I realised that I totally forgot that Calamity was travelling with her spear, so just pretend she's been carrying it the whole time before I change the chapters to include it. It may have hindered their travel through the mountains a little but I'm sure it would have helped too. Also that she had hers and Jai's gifts from Sasha, so I'll try add that back into the story. Rights of bluesky are theirs but my characters are my own._

* * *

Toby stumbled a total of six times on the final stretch down the mountain, Cal a total of five, before Cal decided they would stop for one more time.

"Here," Cal said, finding a singular stone covered in snow.

"There's barely any cover." Toby said. They had their arms over each-other's shoulders, pushing against each other for support, and sharing Cal's spear between them to keep them up.

"I'll make some." Cal said determinedly, and half dropped Toby in the snow. She went to the side of the stone, the only one for another mile or so, and started digging into the ground next to it, hacking at bits of ice with her spear when she needed to.

"Let me help." Toby said, coming over.

"No, rats are useless at digging dens, just leave me to do it." Cal said tiredly.

She felt Toby pause beside her, then stood back, and let her continue her work.

She was done within a matter of twenty minutes, and the sun was starting to set.

"This is the last path of snow for the rest of the way." Toby said, as Cal sat back from digging.

"Good, I'm sick of the cold." She growled, pulling her arms around her, her chin sinking behind the Bandana around her neck.

"We'll be warmer once we're asleep, get in." Toby said, going on all fours to the small dens entrance, and inclining his head towards it. Cal nodded, even more tired than before, and followed him. When she finally laid down, letting her muscles relax, she felt an alarming amount of relief and exhaustion at the same time. Only a few moments after Toby curled up next to her, she fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Toby woke first the next morning, or rather, the next day. He poked his head out of the den into the brilliant light of midday.

 _She's not going to like this, she'll hate how much time we lost._  
He turned, and considered waking her, but when he spotted how deeply she was sleeping, he forgot about it.

 _We pushed for a night and day, she'll be half dead to the world._

Deciding that waking Calamity would be a mistake on his life, he tried to think of what to do next. There wasn't any food to gather, not until they hit the jungle further down the slope, and first they had to go through rocky areas, then shrubby land, bushland, until they reached the softer tree and vines of an unfamiliar jungle. He realised their push was a mistake, they still had a long while to go before they reached food or water.

 _We should head towards the river, try and find food on the way, maybe a safe spot we can rest and eat for a few days before we keep going._

They weren't able to stop for longer than a few hours for sleep the whole time on the mountain, but now they didn't fear freezing or starving to death while they rested. He only then realised his relief at finally being over the mountain. He sat in the entrance to the den, with Cal's spear in his paw in case of a mysterious threat, looking out to the jungle, breathing in the freezing air. He missed the warmth too, and the safety of trees and a ground that didn't make him slip over every hour or so.  
He didn't know how long he sat there for, but it was past noon when he heard Calamity stir behind him.

"Toby?" Calamity said in a panicked voice.

"I'm out here." He said, knowing that the initial effects of waking up might have made it difficult to make his form out against the outside light.

She let out a sigh. "Jeez, I thought…" She trailed off, and it made Toby wonder what she'd been about to say. That he'd gone off on his own? Got eaten by something? Frozen to death? He wasn't sure that any of those lead to what he was _really_ thinking.

 _Was she worried about me?_

Calamity uncurled herself, and stretched in a familiar way, outlining all her muscles and her lithe form in all its power. "That was a good sleep. What time is it?"

"Late, we lost a lot of time." Toby said, thinking that telling her straight would be a better idea than her finding out. To his surprise, she nodded as if she knew all along, but knew he shouldn't have been so surprised.

"If we'd kept going the way we were, we would have tripped on something and broken our necks, or fallen into one of those bloody ravines. It was better to stop."

She crawled out and sat next to him. He handed her spear back to her.

"I was thinking once we're securely in the jungle, we should stake out somewhere, figure out our next moves and do some recovering."

Calamity laughed. "You're such a good scout. My dad really does know how to pick 'em."

Toby smiled. "So, what do you think?"

She nodded. "It's a good plan, I would have done the same thing if I'd been on my own."

Toby squinted at her with a pout. "No, you wouldn't've."

She laughed again. "Okay, you're right. I'd probably be dead without your help, so I'm trusting you to keep me alive."

"What do you think I've been doing all this time?"

"Slacking off, obviously." She stood up, doing a few arm stretches. "Let's get to it, we've got to catch up on time. We'll head for the river, one that size should hold plenty of fish, and a good place to start finding familiar plants if we don't see any on the way."

Toby smiled, standing as well. "Has anyone ever told you you're a special kind of genius?"

"Yeah, my reflection says it all the time." She said, and winked at him.

He shook his head, still smiling, and followed her as she started down the last of the hill again.

* * *

They only stopped one more time before they reached the jungle, and when they finally did reach it, they immediately spotted familiar trees.

"Look, fig trees." Cal said. "They won't be in season but the trees were always Dad's favourite for shelter."

"Cal, there's bananas over there!" Toby said, and ran over to a tall tree that had bunches of bananas weighing down the trunk. Cal followed him over, her stomach growling and her mouth, watering.

"We have to take it slow, or we'll throw it up." Toby said cautiously, and Calamity nodded in agreement, already climbing the tree.

Naturally, they gorged themselves, and threw up in turns.

They rested against the trunk of a tree later, breathing heavily after the ordeal.

"That's the first time I've ever thrown up." Cal said, wiping her mouth. "It's disgusting, and my throat burns."

Toby laughed, head swimming. "You've never thrown up?"

Cal shook her head. "Nothing ever did it, not too much food, or nausea."

"You've clearly never drunk too much Fermented fruit drink." Toby said, rubbing his head.

"Oh what, like you have?" Cal asked mockingly.

"Yeah. A couple of times, actually. I don't like it much, but the other scouts would start these fire-side gatherings after shift, and start drinking, then I'd start drinking, and we just wouldn't stop. I haven't done it for ages though."

"You been stuck with me for months, that's why."

"No, even before then. Before…everything went wrong." He said quietly.

Cal looked at her paws. "Not everything's gone wrong. We've had some good come out of this whole…whatever this is."

Toby looked at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean everything. You're right. You rescued a poor above-grounder girl from her inevitable future, saved Cabe from a responsibility that should never have been his in the first place. Ruby and Rufus have a family now, your dad's still alive." He stopped there. He was sure there was more, but he couldn't quite remember it. All that came up in his mind was that Jai might still be alive, but that opened the possibility that he wasn't. He didn't want that.

She grinned in a teasing way. "And you've come out of your shell a bit."

"Not really, you just broke it open and wrestled me out."

"Speaking of which, we better wrestle our way towards that river." Calamity said, trying to steadily get to her feet.

"Shouldn't we rest again?" Toby asked, trying to ignore the scent of vomit on both of them now.

"Nah, we might as well keep going, now that we know that this place isn't completely different from back home." She answered, dusting herself off. "Anyway, I'd like to go for a swim."

Toby, now fully in understanding, stood up too. "I'm not sure how more of this we can take."

"We'll have to take more of it whether we like it or not, and we have no idea for how long." Cal said cheerily, and Toby tried matching her expression, but he knew better than to truly believe that she wasn't hurting at the moment.

"Alright, lead on then." He said, and she flicked her spear into the air and caught it again, twirling it around her arm while she walked.

* * *

The jungle on this side of the Canine Mountain range felt different but maybe that was just because they weren't used to it. Although they came across many plants they knew, they didn't know specifically where patches of something was, like black berries or Stinging tree, and had to be extra careful to watch themselves.  
Calamity felt so good to be back in her element. It wasn't the jungles around home, but it wasn't the strange and terrifying mountain which had almost killed them over and over again, either. At least here, she knew the basics of finding shelter, water, food, all the essentials. And, finally, she could work on finding her brother. He would have pushed to reach this side as well, he was as much as unfamiliar with that mountain as she was, and would know staying is too much of a risk.

 _Would he though? Do I even know Jai anymore?  
_

She tried not to think about that. She didn't want to think that the person she might find would be twisted and broken as their father. Not Buck, the other one. The father that shared her fur. Out of all the kids in the world that Regal was related to, Jai was the least likely to become like him, and yet it had been looking like that towards the end.

She took a deep breath and tried to rid those thoughts from her mind. She didn't need this right now.

She gripped her spear and headed further into the jungle, trying to take note of everything around her. It was harder on this side, because she knew she couldn't just go back home like usual. There was a huge and difficult mountain range between here and home, and then another two weeks journey through that jungle to get through there. It was settled then.

"Toby." She said, "We're not going back until we find my brother. This trip was too much effort."

"Aye aye ma'am." Toby said, but neither of them smiled this time.

* * *

Cal had wrestled their way through a tangle of thick brush when she and Toby heard a hissing sound.

"Snake?" Toby asked with a shrug, while Cal looked around, ears perked to try find the source.

She shook her head. "No, this is different."

Instead of the even, high hissing of a snake, or the snarling hiss of death from a raptor. It sounded more like an angry bird, but Cal couldn't hear the flapping of wings as usual. She sniffed some more, and picked up the scent of dead meat, but as if it was on someone's breath. Or _something's_ breath.  
It was only when something shifted in the brush that Calamity spotted it. A hulking mass of grey scales, four short legs and a long, whipping tail. It was coming towards them with its mouth opening and closing in gawping hisses, the cause of the irritation obviously being Calamity and Tobiah.

"It's a lizard." Calamity said, sounding disappointed.

"In case you hadn't noticed, it's a _huge_ lizard." Toby said, backing away. He then jumped forward with a yell of surprise when his back came up against a snout that let out a hiss of air through its nostrils.

"Huh, another one," Cal said, then looked around the spot of leaf litter and trees where they were standing, and spotted more of the grey shapes coming over out of curiosity, occasionally snapping at companions or scenting the air with forked tongues.

 _Either they're as curious as we are, or they know we might be a threat, which means they might have seen Jai.  
_

"Have you ever taken out a dino like this before?" Toby asked, as they backed into each other.

Calamity observed them. Despite having short legs, they seemed to be able to raise their bodies high off the ground, and their tails looked like they could pack a punch.

"Not really, but who says that means it's difficult?" Calamity said, shrugging it off.

"That's what you said about the mountain." Toby deadpanned, then gave a start when one of the lizards gave a particularly pointed hiss. "Cal, plan please."

"Pfffft, haven't you learned anything from being with my family?" Cal asked, and grabbed onto his upper arm, "We never plan."

With her spear gripped in her right paw, and Toby in her left, she started running towards the first lizard they had seen, which backed away in surprise, looking at its friends out the corner of its eyes.

"Oh great." Toby muttered to himself.

With a whoop, Calamity jumped, Toby leaping with her, and they kicked off the first lizard's head, who tried snapping after them, but they had already landed behind him.

He turned, and some of the others that were late in their approach to the new mammals, watching them with whipping tongues and tails.  
Calamity let go of Toby and spun her spear with a grin. "Come on boys." She flicked a finger at them, indicating for them to challenge. Toby nervously stretched his arms for a moment, before holding his fists near his chin. He wasn't sure if his hand-to-hand combat skills were going to work here, but he was going to give it a try anyway. Calamity looked like she was going to steal the spotlight anyway, so he wasn't too worried about fighting for very long.

The lizards charged from all angles, moving surprisingly fast for something that was so close to the ground. Calamity leaped from one head to the other, jabbing at eyes and poking ear holes, whipping at snouts and swiping at legs.

She moved so fast that the lizards barely had time to snap at her before she was gone. Even swiping their muscly tails didn't work; she would just catch onto them and help them to propel her to the next target. Soon all the lizards, more than a dozen of them, had congregated to one spot and were racing after the moving adversary.

Toby didn't even have to move. Not a single one of the lizards were coming after him, so he sat on the ground in the middle of the fight and leaned back, watching with interest.

Calamity twisted and twirled through the air, doing backflips and pirouettes and sliding across the dirt stylishly to duck under the belly of the lizards, or pranced away from the jaws of another before stamping on its thrashing maw with a triumphant 'ha!'.  
Toby felt his heart beat faster while he watched her. It was like she was transferring some of her thrill to him like a drug. He watched her every move, marvelling at how something could move completely on instinct and look like it had been choreographed and practiced for years. He would feel jealous if it had been anyone but Cal.

He knew his feelings for her, but out here on their own it seemed to be less important for some reason, as if just being with her was enough. She respected him and relied on him, just as much as he respected and relied on her. A dependence that he'd never had on anyone, and he suspected that it was not that way for her. She had depended on her father's rescuing skills, and his fatherly support, and her mother's love, and her brother's rationality. Knowing that she had always depended on something proved what he thought. She depended on him now as well, and the best thing about it was that she didn't resent it.

Finally, the lizards started backing away with angry hisses once they realised this prey was far too much trouble for any of them to handle, and they slunk into the brush following the scent of carrion instead.

Calamity combed a paw through her fur. "Phew. That was so much fun, I haven't done that in weeks."

"It looked like you were having fun." Toby said, standing up.

"You shoulda joined me." She shoved his shoulder. "When was the last time you had some fun?"

"Your family's definition of fun and mine are very different." Toby said, looking at her with an unimpressed face.

"Yeah, I know, you don't fight for fun or whatever." Cal said, rolling her eyes. "What about a play fight? We've had plenty of those."

"Not here, we need to find that river, remember." He noted that they had been instinctively heading in the direction of the river after leaving the lizards in the dust.

"We can find it…while also racing."

"What?"

She punched his arm and dashed off, yelling, "You're IT!"

Toby shook away his stunned expression, and raced after her, determination rising. He'd get her this time! He'd never been able to catch her in a full-on race, but he was bent on doing it this time.

He picked a tree and raced up its trunk into the branches, running along branches and leaping into the next tree, and the tree after, watching Calamity's easily identifiable shape race in the undergrowth. The trees here were a reliable distance from each other, and he didn't have any fear of falling. He let his thoughts fly off like the leaves he disturbed from their perches, relying on his instincts to lead him to the right branches and put the right amount of push into his leaps. He was able to completely let the restraints go, his blood flowing freely from limb to limb. He never used to do such things, but after travelling with Calamity for so long, he'd been trying to let go of caution and hesitation. He'd grown to think like her. Indecisiveness was the reason so many mammals died.

To his surprise, he saw a glint of light ahead of him, recognizing the light. It was a reflection off water, and soon he could see the break in the tree as it hit the river, with rocky banks instead of sand.

 _I have to get her before she reaches the water, or I'll lose again!_

He chanced a glance down to where Calamity was running, and then saw the break between the trees. It was now or never.

Just before the trees ended, Toby leaped from the branch he was on, and fell towards Calamity with his arms outstretched. He flew into Cal, and she gave a yell as they collided, tumbling over each other and rolling like a pin ball down the rocky slope. They stopped just before the water, their arms splashing into the river. Panting, Toby raised his head.

"Tag." He grumbled, his body flopped across her torso as they lay sprawled on the shore. He rolled off of her, and fell onto his back, feeling the rivers current brush past his hand carefully.

Calamity blinked for a few minutes out of shock, then laughed. "You caught me."

"Why are _you_ celebrating?" he asked.

"Oh my go-… _you_ caught _me_!?" She yelled, and then rolled until she was kneeling above him. "You did it! You finally are the greatest scout to ever live!" She threw her fists into the air while she yelled.

"How did you get that from a game of tag?" Toby asked, leaning up on his elbows.

"Think about it. I was trained by my father my whole life, the first mammal to survive down here. If there was anyone you had to catch to be the best, it was me." She said with a shrug.

"It'll be double when we find your brother as well. You're the best at a game of tag, but he's the best at hiding." Toby said.

Cal put a claw to her chin. "Hey, you're totally right."

"Wouldn't be the first time."

She lightly hit his chest. "Don't ruin it."

Toby fell back onto his spine and sighed. "Can you get off so we can catch some fish?"

She pressed a fist to the top of his chest, just below his neck. "This is another test. Throw me off and you can get food."

"Now you're just being ridiculous." He replied, knowing full well that she was aware that they were evenly matched, especially since her spear had fallen from her grip as they'd crashed, and was half-laying in the water a few feet away. He kicked his right leg out and curved it towards himself, as if to rest it on his other knee, but Calamity was in the way. He hooked his leg on her chest and pushed with his left hip, easily throwing her off. She rolled away, on the opposite side of Toby to her spear, which toby had not intended. Luckily, Cal didn't know that, and looked impressed.

"Good moves rat-boy."

"That's what all the girls say." He replied with a shrug, pleasantly surprised at his own boldness, and apparently so was Cal.

She laughed. "Very smooth."

She leaped for her spear but Toby caught her shoulder and spun her back to where she'd been. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it, making him twist his arm and eventually his body with it to avoid getting it sprained. He snapped out his other arm into the inside of her elbow, bending her arm normally but loosening her grip, and he broke the trap, jumping away from her.

"You know if I had my spear I'd be winning." Cal said to him.

"But you don't have your spear."

"Not for long." She growled, and leaped at him. He expected a trick of some sort, and wasn't disappointed when he saw her paw make a strange movement in the ground. He turned just in time for the dirt to hit his back instead of his face, and turned back around just in time to grab al around the middle as she again leaped for the spear. She managed to spin her body as they fell again, and crushed him beneath her as they landed. She elbowed his chest and made him cough, but as she went to break free he jabbed just below her throat, making her gag. He threw her off and they both stood, then locked arms. They wrestled for minutes on end,  
Toby's paws locked just above Cal's elbows and her paws doing the same. Toby's strength versus Calamity's limber flexibility. They threw each other around to no avail, both feeling the flesh bruise and the bones ache, but neither came on top as winner.

It was a while before they were prepared to speak to each other again.

"Maybe we should call it a draw." Toby said. His hunger was taking over, and this time he wasn't sure he cared if she won.

Calamity's twisted frown indicated what she thought of 'draws', but he also saw her glance towards the river.

 _She's hungry too.  
_

"Alright, just this once." She hissed, a promise for future fights.

They let go of each other at the same time, rubbing the places where their grips had held, eventually smiling at each other.

"You're more fun than you let on Toby." She said, and the use of his real name startled Toby, but he didn't say anything about it.

"No one's ever tried to know, really."

"Too bad that the first person is me." She replied, fetching her spear.

"I wouldn't say that." Toby said, kneeling next to the river to wash his face.

The silence hung between them comfortably, like it always did after a session. They hunted for fish in silence, started a fire in the evening in silence, put it out in silence, climbed a tree in silence, and didn't even need to say goodnight as they fell asleep on the same branch. Despite the warmer weather and plenty of room, they curled up around each other anyway.


	6. Chapter 6 Roar throats, sore eyes

_Here's a Chapter back at the Grandfather tree guys, hope you enjoy.  
Bluesky right remain that of Bluesky, but my characters are my own. Please, please, please leave reviews and comments, I love them so much and haven't had any so far. Also, I know I haven't really had Buck's POV much so far, but there is more of him later. _

It took a while for Rufus to get back to normal. Ivory stayed kneeling next to him, his head pressed into her neck while he tried to calm down, tried to find answers in unasked and unknown questions.

Eventually, he took a deep breath and drew away from her, rubbing his face. It was night, like the first time she had met him, but this time he looked completely different.

"We don't know who's our friend or enemy anymore." He said tiredly.

"What did you and Ruby fight about?" Ivory asked quietly.

"She asked me why I stopped Tessa having more of a go at mum, and I told her." He looked up to the ice sky. "I don't want them to end up like us, hating their own mum. I don't want them to be angry," He laughed cruelly, "Or afraid of acts of kindness as simple as getting a present, or getting a hug. You're all right, we're just scared because we have no idea what our life is anymore, or who we are. Before, we were the bastard children of a psychotic murderer who had to fight their mother off their younger siblings. Now that all of that is gone." He shrugged. "What left is there of us?"

Ivory smiled kindly, rubbing a paw along his neck gently. "You may be afraid, but you're the most fearless person I know, and incredibly strong." She saw he was about to argue, but cut him off. "You're strong because you can see the flaws in you and your sister's ways, and not only are you trying to stop your little siblings from being the same, but you're trying to change yourself to think differently. To be a better person. You may have stopped a major fight between Ruby and your mother today and didn't even realise."

He just looked back up at the ice sky, face expressionless.

"I don't want to be dangerous anymore."

Ivory laughed, and he glared at her. "You're not dangerous." She laughed.

"Yes, I am." He said, looking as if she was an idiot.

"When you found me following you that night, the first night we met, you could have hurt me for trying to follow you to where you were hiding your loved ones. You could have yelled and screamed and hit at me. You don't snap like Ruby does. Even when Cal was around before, or Buck, you never fought. You don't like fights, no matter how good you are at them." She gave him one last nudge with her hand softly. "You're not dangerous."  
Her words must have got to him more than she thought, because he turned his face away, paws curled into fists.

"Let's go back home." Ivory said quietly, and he nodded slowly. She stood, grabbing his paws gently, and he relaxed as he stood. She took a soft step backwards to lead him back to the tree, but he tensed again, and just before she could ask what was wrong, Rufus pulled her strongly to him and wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

Ivory was a little shocked at first, then relaxed and hugged him tightly back.  
For a while it felt like Rufus wanted to say something, but couldn't seem to say it. Ivory had a funny feeling she knew what it was, so to save him the trouble, and nervous effort, she just said,

"You're welcome."

They walked back to the tree together, and saw that on the other side was Ruby approaching with Buck, Ruby looking grudgingly irritated and Buck with a grin, who winked at Ivory.

When Ruby saw Rufus, her irritation dropped and she looked like she didn't know what to say, so Buck and Ivory went into the den together, leaving the siblings to talk it out.

Ivory was glad it was Buck who went to talk to Ruby instead of herself. She knew he wouldn't have taken any of Ruby's inevitable rant personally, while Ivory was sure to be hurt by words. Buck would have teased just the right amount before saying something that would have taken Ruby's guard down through pure shock. He was able to simply push someone to their very limits and let up at just the right moment for them to spill like a dam.

"How did she seem?" Ivory asked him.

He smiled. "Humbler. Rufus?"

Ivory thought about it. "Less scared."

Buck nodded. "That's what we want. 'Night snowflake."

"Night Rusty."

Ivory went to her room, and feeling better about the day's events, went to sleep quickly.

* * *

The next day, Lucy, Ivory and Ruby all went for a swim in the river in the morning, taking their time off from the kits and the rest of the family for a little while. Ruby and Ivory jumped right in, splashing each other, while Lucy followed them in calmly shortly afterwards, swimming calmly or sitting in the shallows, washing herself and combing the grime from her fur and skin. After almost an hour, the girls joined her on the sandy bank to dry off and calm down, and warmed up in the sun while talking to Lucy about the formula she was working on for Collette's nightmares.

"I don't think I need to help her sleep or anything," Lucy said, "Just calm down her brain activity before she goes to sleep, or maybe take it as a medication before bed. I don't know how I'm going to go about it yet."

"Maybe we should only give it to her when she's having them at the time." Ivory said, dusting some sand from her fur.

"Her dreams are unpredictable." Ruby answered instead of Lucy. "She could have them in the middle of the night or the middle of the day, by the time we get it to her it might be too late. We want to prevent them from happening in the first place, not just calm her down afterwards."

Lucy nodded. "As long as there's turmoil, she'll probably have them, so we might as well find a way to stop or at least lessen their impact."

Just as they finished talking, they heard someone coming through the jungle, some familiar voices and scents, and all three girls smiled. Adrian, Buck and Rufus arrived.

"Don't tell me you left Cabe alone with the kits?" Lucy asked.

"Nah," Buck waved it away as they approached, "Trudy showed up with her raptors. They should a' least be able t' keep an eye on a bunch o' kits. Alrigh', Rufus you ge' Ivory, I'll ge' Lucy, and Adrian gets Ruby."

"What?" Ivory and Ruby asked together, but Lucy had already sped off down the sand, knowing exactly what her husband's mind was cooking up. Before the two girls came to the same realisation, Rufus had grabbed Ivory and Adrian had tackled Ruby, and had thrown the girls back into the river with triumphant laughs. It only took a few more moments before Lucy was thrown in too, Buck dusting his paws, before giving a whoop and bombing in after them, splashing them against their wills.

They started playing water games as usual, grabbing sticks and rocks and handfuls of wet sand, tossing them at each other or having rock-skipping competitions. Ruby was on Adrian's shoulders, Ivory on Rufus', And Buck on Lucy's as the girls all tried throwing each other off the boy's shoulders, one of their favourite games, occasionally swapping Ivory, the lightest of the girls, on Ruby's shoulders, and Adrian on Buck's shoulders.

It was growing later when Buck stopped in the water after getting Ruby in a head lock. She struggled in the water, berating him with all kinds of rude names, until he shushed her.

"You can't 'shush' me while you got me in a bloody head lo-,"

"Sh!" He hissed roughly, and let her go. Ruby, realising that something was up, stayed silent, and so did the others, all their ears pricking up.

There was the sound of whimpering, and someone coming from the jungle.

Bluey slowly stepped from the jungle. He wasn't crying, but he looked nervous and shaky. He had his leather armour on, but it was tilted as if he'd just fallen off a raptor and hadn't had time or effort to correct it back.

"Bluey?" Ruby said kindly, running through the water to the bank until she reached him. "What's wrong little man?"

"Someone's at home…" Bluey said. "A stranger."

All six members of the family frowned.

Rufus put Bluey on his back, and Buck nodded to him, looking serious. Ruby walked up next to him, and they made their way through the jungle at a fast pace without running, not wanting to panic Bluey.

When they reached the Grandfather tree, it was clear that something wasn't right. The scent in the air was different, but there wasn't just one.

 _It's not mum's though,_ Rufus thought, feeling relieved. He wasn't sure if he could take another encounter with her. There was also no sign of the kits, or Cabe or Trudy, but Trudy's raptors were tied up nearby.

"They must be inside." Lucy said, and they all made it to the den entrance, sniffing for a moment before going in.

Ivory bulked at the scent near the den.  
"I know who's scent that is." She said, and her tone held more curiosity and surprise than anything, and Rufus felt the tension in himself in the others release. Ivory, the one who was usually most alarmed out of all pf them, was not alarmed. Therefore, whatever it was had _no_ potential to be dangerous.

She lead the way inside, and found in one of the largest, most aired chambers of the tree, was where Cabe, Trudy, and two strangers were, although they weren't strangers at all.

"Brendis!" Ivory shrieked happily, and ran to her brother, who hugged her happily. Rufus felt something inside of him twitch, and he swallowed the feeling.  
The other mammal in the room was Shanae, the older weaselette who was on the council, and had been blessedly on Buck's side on the fight against the arranged marriage between Cabe and Ivory.

"Shanae? I'll be dammed." Buck said, giving her a bright smile. "We were worried for a minute."

"Sorry to come so randomly, but Brendis' arrival was a shock to us too." Shanae said.

Brendis rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, still sorry about that." He turned to Ivory. "I really needed to see you."

Ivory's eyes immediately widened. "What is it? Is mum okay?"

"Uh… well yes and no. Can we…talk? Somewhere else?" Brendis asked, glancing at the room full of mammals.

"Oh uh, sure." Ivory said, and led him out. Rufus felt himself put Bluey down, and he must have taken a step to go after them, but he felt a paw on his shoulder, and saw Adrian shaking his head. Rufus watched them go, feeling uneasy. Buck and Lucy sat down in their chairs, which only got used if the weather was bad enough outside to drive the family into the den, and the other chose spots on the ground like usual while Shanae took the only spare chair. The kits were there too, and all chose a family member to cuddle up next to. Bluey with Rufus, Melina with Lucy, Tessa with Cabe, Darcy with Buck, and Coby with Adrian. Collette hesitated to go to Trudy. Usually, she stayed around Ivory because of her unceasing attention to the white female, but quickly rushed to Trudy when she realised Ivory wasn't coming back for a little while. Shanae didn't say anything, but Rufus could hear her brain working. She seemed to not judge, only to observe with interest. She, like he and his sister at the moment, was trying to figure out how all the pieces were fitting together.

"So, what's all this about?" Adrian asked, Coby looking from him to Shanae.

Shanae, not dropping her formalities, said, "Brendis came down with one of our scouts who helped take the last of the above-grounders back home. Brendis came back with him, it's why it took so long I suspect." She glanced at the door, making sure Ivory and Brendis weren't going to come back yet. "I believe he's here to take her back."

Seven pairs of ears dropped at the exact same time, and Shanae raised her eyebrows.

"I didn't think any of you would be impressed by the idea."

"If she wanted to go back, we would have taken her ages ago." Cabe said.

"I thought that too, and I tried to explain all this to him. He said he wasn't the one pressuring her to come back, it was her mother and the rest of her family. They didn't want her living with…savages."

"What!?" Ruby snapped.

" _Not_ Brendis' words, but that of his family." Shanae explained. "It seems Brendis is perfectly happy with where his sister is, but as head of the family now, he has to carry out their wishes. And they wish her home."

"Too bad." Rufus said darkly. "She's one of us now."

Ruby, Cabe, and Trudy nodded. Buck, Lucy, and Adrian didn't but they didn't have to, Shanae knew they felt the same.

"I know that she is part of this family now, but again, it's not me you have to explain that to. You must understand that we are the kind that killed Agent Fin and many of his soldiers."

"Wouldn't Solomon and the others have explained this when they got home?" Cabe said.

"Explaining and convincing aren't the same thing." Adrian said wisely.

"It would arouse suspicion no matter how much they explained. They would want the daughter of a high lord, like Ivory, to go back and assure them. Clearly Brendis' lack of involvement in the matter just isn't doing it for them." Trudy added.

"What if they told it wrong?" Ruby asked.

"Ferris' Nephew and Niece were kidnapped by the Tyrants, I'm pretty sure he would have told it right." Cabe said, Ruby shrugging in what could have been agreement.

"How is she by the way? The girl Viv?" Trudy asked.

Shanae rubbed her face for a moment. "I already asked. Apparently, they're making progress on her recovery, but it's slow and often dangerous. She was cruelly trained, but it worked enough that she's got plenty of skills and can break from her holding cell often enough."

Just then, there was some raised voices from outside. Rufus was the first one to stand up, and Buck indicated with his head for him to go, and Rufus felt a moment of strong gratitude towards Buck. He was giving Rufus a chance to make it up to Ivory for all her help. The others glanced at him before sitting back down, and he left on his own.

He jogged his way outside, and it didn't take long to spot Ivory and Brendis, Ivory's coat being so obvious.

He had never seen something more confusing.

Ivory was kicking sand at her brother, yelling things that Regal would have never expected to come out of her mouth.

"Ivory! It's not me I swear. Mum wants you home, I don't care either way." Brendis said, jumping away from her dusty kicks.

"But you came here to take me back, didn't you!?" Ivory said, and Rufus started forward. She didn't even look his way, but Brendis glanced at his approach.

"The others want me to, and they threatened that if I didn't, cousin Gabe is going to be head of the family. Do you know how bad that would be?" Brendis answered.

"Just think about the family Ivory."

"Oi," Rufus growled, "Watch it family guy."

"This has nothing to do with you." Brendis said to him harshly.

"Yes it does." Ivory said to her brother, her attitude changing. "This is my family now. Tell mum that if she hadn't wanted me to leave…" She took a shuddering breath, and Rufus could tell she was holding back tears, "Then she should have treated me like a daughter and not a bargaining chip. I'm done. You're all as bad as dad."

"We never hurt you like he did." Brendis said.

"But you never did anything about it!" Ivory snapped.

 _I knew it. I knew she couldn't just let something like that go.  
_

Ivory turned away from her brother angrily, and Rufus took over. He approached Brendis."You let us take her all those months ago." He said to him. "If you thought you would get her back one day, you should never have let her leave."

Ivory, sniffing as her tears trailed down her face, was hugging herself. Brendis gave her one final look, at first of sorrow, then the status of head of the family kicked in and he drew himself together.  
"I'll tell them you're dead to us."

Ivory said nothing.

Brendis turned to Rufus. "Do you mind fetching Shanae for me?"

"Get her yourself." Rufus said in disgust, and Brendis carefully hid his anger, but walked to the den and inside.

Rufus walked over to Ivory, touching her arm gently. She turned quickly into his arms, putting her head on his chest and letting him rest his chin on her head, holding her tightly.

When Brendis emerged again, with Shanae next to him and the rest of the family dogging their heels, he didn't even look at Ivory, just kept walking into the jungle towards the village.  
Shanae had the decency to shake Buck and Lucy's paws before following him.

"Well tha' went well." Buc said, coming over to Rufus and Ivory with his knife over his shoulder. He let it sink to the ground where it sheathed neatly. Rufus felt Ivory shift, and let her go, where she was hugged gently by Lucy and Buck. Cabe smiled knowingly, and Buck pulled him in too. Ruby and Rufus looked at each other and the kits around Ruby and Adrian, watching the scene with curiosity.

Collette walked up to Ivory and tugged lightly on her fur. Ivory laughed through her tears and bent down to pick her up, Buck and Lucy backing away then.  
"Alright kids, the dinos aren't going to play by themselves." Lucy said. The way she said 'kids' twinged something inside Rufus, and this time he didn't ignore it. He had to earn not to ignore these feelings, these twinges. He had to learn to not run away from the family that was trying to accept him instead of harming him.

* * *

Buck was watching Rufus and Ruby the whole time. It was clear as day that Rufus was struggling very hard with something inside. He seemed unsure about how to react to things, but was trying his hardest to give new things a try, despite the eighteen years of inbuilt instincts.

It was Ruby who was the harder nut to crack, but Buck had expected that. She was like Calamity, stubborn, and trusted her own instincts above all else, and her instincts were fighting viciously in this new environment. Both of them were so used to a horrible life style that they felt out pf place without it.  
Their vulnerability was their own worst enemy.

In the afternoon of the same day, it seemed something else was changing. Everyone noticed, but no one mentioned it. Rufus held Ivory's hand and she held his. They would play with the kits together but occasionally touch the others face gently. At one point, while Buck was carrying back firewood with Lucy, he saw Rufus place his forehead on Ivory's and they sat like that for a moment before breaking away from each other comfortably.  
That night, while Lucy and Buck laid in their bed together, Lucy's cheek on his chest, she said quietly,

"We need to take them somewhere, all of them. On an adventure."

Buck smiled widely, rubbing his nose against hers. "Summer's comin', the rain'll douse the side of Devil's Mountain."

"We'll have to wait too long." Lucy said. "Where else could we go?"

Buck so wanted to go North East, to the mountains and beyond, to find his kids, to help them. To help Jai through whatever it was that sent him so far away from home.

 _Maybe he's more like me than I thought. Maybe he just doesn't like home._

That hurt him. That hurt Buck more than he thought it would. Was this what his parents had felt like every time he spent nights and days away from them? Was Jai just turning out like he had been for six years, on his own in the dino jungle?

 _Alone. Lonely. Insane._

Buck took a deep breath. "We'll go t' the Valley's t' the East."

Lucy looked up at him, a little shocked. "I thought you would say-,"

"I know. Bu' Jai ran away for a reason. Only Cal can find 'im now, and help him. We jus' have to focus on helping the rest o' the family that's here, an' try no' worry about 'em."

Lucy leaned up and kissed him. "I'm so proud of you."

Buck leaned his head back, making the map in his head to take them. Through the jungle around here, past the scar on the land where they had fought the Tyrants, beyond to the battle-ground where he'd fought Regal for the last time, beyond the river cave where he, Adrian and Trudy had saved Lucy from within the waterfall. There was more jungle past there, where the rock had been blasted apart by cataclysmic events thousands of years ago, and the jungle grew on rock formations like natural bridges and hollow columns reach to the icy and rocky sky. It was fun to grab a piece of bark and slide down those, or the slopes of thick stalactites.

"East is safer, until o' course ya ge' t' the peat fields." Buck said. "But between here an' there is fairly safe, better for the kits. We'll take 'em more dangerous places when they're older, like Cal and Jai."

"That's Ruby and Rufus' decision. They might decide to move out you know." Lucy said to him.

Buck shook his head. "They won' while they an' the kits are so confused. They're no' dumb."

Lucy frowned. "They might just give up and go back to their old ways."

Buck thought of the way Rufus picked up Tessa hastily after the small kit had pushed her mother, though about what Rufus and Ruby had clearly fough about. He thought about the night he'd talked to Ruby, listened to her rant about her inner hatred and regrets, her insecurities, and her confusion. About how badly she wanted to be like Rufus, to be able to change like he was, but also how badly she mistrusted it. She was scared that she was losing her own brother, and it was terrifyingly like Cal.

"I don' think so. I believe they can change."

"It's not a matter of what we believe, but what they do."

"They're almos' there luv, we jus' gotta help 'em the rest o' the way."

She nodded with a small smile, and Buck rolled to snuggle into her side, using her as a pillow instead of the other way around, to sleep calmly.  
"Ivory and Rufus are becoming quite the item." Lucy said quietly, running her claws calmly through Buck's fur on his head and back, making his eyelid droop, and he chuckled quietly.

"Young love. So good."

"Know that from experience do you?" Lucy teased, pinching his ear lightly.

He snapped calmly at her claws. "'Course I do." He gave her another kiss. "Let's go t' sleep. We gotta get 'em up early."

"We're leaving first thing?"

"Why no'? Might as well."

"I suppose you're right, but Ruby won' be happy with the early morning call, or Cabe."

"They're used to I' by now." Buck said, "They won' even be surprised."

They fell asleep calmly together, Buck dreaming of the adventures he would be taking the others on, and Lucy dreaming about being with him.


	7. Chapter 7 Heart of Mars, Eyes of Stars

_Rights of Buck and Rudy to Bluesky but my OC's are mine, no stealing._

As the days went by, Calamity and Toby combed their way through the unfamiliar jungle, moving slower than Calamity would have ever liked. It even got to Toby, how impatient they both were to find something, anything, that indicated to where Jai might be. They scaled trees and rugged rock formation to get a look at the land, but nothing seemed particularly interesting enough to drive them that way.

One evening, as the world turned a dusky colour, Calamity paced by where they had set the first fire in days, near the river they were following.  
Her fists clenched and unclenched, as like every night, she tried to plan their next move. But their moves all seemed to be the same. Cross the river, head one way for miles, then zig-zag back and do the same thing on the other side of the river. A few mornings had been interesting with the presence of crocodiles, and they had to fight them off, and they had to discover on the way the dangerous plants, but the trip was dragging out, and Calamity had to come to terms with the fact that she might be here longer than she'd hoped. She'd known that had been a possibility, but hadn't fully believed the reality. Now, she had no other choice.

"Cal, sit down, or go for a walk, but your pacing is driving me nuts." Toby said calmly, poking the fire with indifference. She turned to him.

"I can't sit down."

"Then go for a walk." Toby said, reminding her of his other suggestion.

Calamity looked off into the jungle. "Walk where?"

"Somewhere. Find a small adventure or something, but we both know you don't think properly while just pacing. You need something else to give you ideas."

Calamity wanted to glare at him, but knew it would have no power on him. He was immune to her displeasured looks, in the knowledge that they never lead to anything. They never seemed to have the concern to stay mad at each other for long.

"A small adventure? Like what? Catching fireflies?" She tried to snap.

He shrugged. "Catch fireflies, chase moths, poke a raptor in the butt, it doesn't matter. You're too full of adrenaline to think, you need to burn it out."

"Fine," She said, picking up her spear and pointing it to him through the fire. "A race to the top of that tree and back, if I win, you have first watch."

He shook his head. "I don't have the energy. You're just going to have to find something to do on your own."

She frowned. Something to do on her own? "Why are you so boring?" She said, half-teasing.

"Think what you want of me," Toby sighed, "But I'm not going."

Cal waved away at him. "Whatever. See ya soon."

He didn't wave her off.

 _Jeez, he's being weird,_ Cal thought, as she walked through the jungle alone. _I wonder why he's so off._

Maybe the trip was getting to him too. They were both wearing thin, wondering how long this was going to take, and if they would ever find Jai at all. Or was it something about her? Was she pissing him off, finally, after all this time? Was her teasing and pushing starting to drive him up the wall?

After a while, she wondered into a particularly dark and thick part of the jungle, and raised her senses again. She had let her guard down unwisely, and could see her father's face in her mind, feeling his paw whack her lightly on the back of the head, telling her to forget the other problems she could deal with later. She had to start paying attention to this place, otherwise she'd never find her way, or learn enough to keep them alive.

The jungle became denser and denser, until she was cutting vines more and more to make her way, determined to make some kind of path, smelling the air around her. She felt them tugging at her, so tight and difficult. It felt like every time she cut a vine, another one only replaced it. Eventually, she was barely moving, like a kit stumbling on its first playfield.

"Great," She muttered, swiping her Spear again, but it got caught in the vines for the dozenth time.

Then she paused, feeling her skin prickle beneath her fur, which began to stand on end. Something was wrong. She let herself just breathe for a moment, then what she suspected was confirmed. The vines were moving at snail like pace across her, but picked up when she moved her arm slowly.

 _Sensitive to movement, which means it should be one tree._

If there was more than one tree or source of the vines, then they would accidently trick each other in their own movement, leading to the strangling of their own kind. In order for a plant to survive like this, either they spread very sparse or this one was the one that survived against the competition. It may not have had a mind like an animal or human, but it meant it was persistent in its survival. Calamity wasn't sure if she was annoyed or impressed, either way, she had to get out fast.

She tried inching her way back the way she had come, but stepped on something like root, and the vines around her gave a great shudder, and began moving faster.  
"Just great!" She yelled, "Trigger roots."

These were rare in her home part of the jungle, they were further east and south than the village, towards the Jungle of Misery and within it. Nevertheless, she knew how to deal with them. She swiped up a bone nearby, undoubtedly from an unlucky dinosaur that had gotten caught in the trap and devoured by the plant over weeks. She then reduced her movement again, and began twirling the bone amongst the vines that were trying to encase her. After some teasing with the bird-like bone, the plant fell for it, and started wrapping around it and her arm that was holding it, but the vines started releasing on her other side where she stayed stoically still. She slowly picked up another bone and continued, until most of her body was almost free, and she managed to tuck her spear beneath her arm, and start to back out slowly, making better progress than before.

However, she heard something coming, and froze.

She scanned the area slowly, eyes wide and ears up.

She spotted movement, and watched as a ridiculously wiry raptor, smaller than her, hopped over vines and roots towards her. It had very large eyes for something of its size, and she suspected it was purely nocturnal. It didn't even touch the vines, and she knew it was adapted to this plant.

 _Interesting…_ She thought, feeling the inner discoverer take notes on this, knowing she would come back during the day and try find them again, but then she realised the creature was coming closer, and she still was not out of the plant, which would hold tight if she tried escaping too quickly.  
She continued tricking the plant, until she felt no more plants touching her back, and gave one surging push of her legs to get away from the reach of the plants, which snatched onto the bones she was holding, but didn't have the grip on her to keep her there.

She went to run back to the river's edge where Toby was, but when she turned she saw more tiny raptors, but saw they weren't so tiny. The one she had seen must have been a juvenile. The adults still were not very large, but they were bigger than her by enough to make it more of a challenge, and there was more of them, all wiry and ready to sprint. They were without a doubt, going to be a very fast animal, or a very nimble one. She brandished her spear, and swung it enough to make them take a few steps back, becoming cautious. She knew from all experiences that it wouldn't last long.

Eventually hunger overcame fear, and one of the leaped at her. She jumped to the side, having to avoid one, then ducking and sliding to avoid the next, then had to twirl her way out of the other. She felt like a dancer in mortal peril, and she couldn't help but grin to herself, feeling excited.

One of them side stepped and like a whip, cracked its tail towards her. She ducked just in time, but felt the tips of her ears sting.

"Ya bugger!" She exclaimed. She ducked away from the next strike, but the one after caught her across the face, and she cried out in pain. She felt another whip like tail take her legs out from under her, and she fell onto her face. She rolled over quickly, but had to scramble backwards to avoid sets of light and quick jaws go for her throat.

Cal tried jumping to her feet, but these raptors were scarily smart, and knew that if they kept at her with swift attacks, she wouldn't be able to get up, and would eventually be cornered.

She swished her spear back and forth in front and above her, creating a circle where they couldn't go, at least not yet. If one took one for the team and decided to stall the spear, Cal knew she was doomed.

She then spotted the open dirt at the raptors feet, and thought quickly. She scraped it with her spear and flung it into the raptors' eyes, making them screech in alarm and back up, trying to rub the dirt away.

Cal used the time to finally get to her feet, and felt much more confident now she had her main advantage back. With balance, height, and the potential for speed, she started striking just as quick as them, lunging with her spear or swiping it across their chests. Soon, most of them had cuts in some place or other, but they grew angrier, their rage powering their bravery.

She was surrounded, in unfamiliar territory, and was losing the high ground as the land sloped towards the river, where she was trying to make it to.  
Just as one of the raptors got so angry he simply lunged directly at Cal, and she held her spear to pierce his chest, a dark smudge leaped from a nearby tree and tacked it to the ground, rolling until the raptor was in a head lock and its dangerous tail being pinned by Toby's back paw.

"Nice of you to show up." Cal laughed, dodging another bite.

"Nice of you to wait for me." Toby said, less enthusiastic. "Can we end this quickly?"

Cal huffed. "As you wish," then she added in a mumble, "Downer."

Toby gave her a look, and punched the raptor in his paws unconscious, then he leaped over to go back to back with Cal.

"Speaking of which, you've been a bit moody lately. What's up?" Cal asked, propelling herself at one of the raptors with the end of her spear, and kicking it hard in the head, sending it spinning away.

Toby leaped at the one that lunged to him, and grabbed onto its neck. Swinging around it, he made the raptor stumble and then fall, then punched that one's lights out as well. "Is this really the time to be analysing me?"

"When else do you plan on talking about it?" Cal said back to him, keeping another back by having its jaws locked around her spear, and she wrangled with it.

"I don't plan on talking about it." Toby said, grabbing a raptors forearm and throwing it over his head without so much as a grunt, slinging it into the jungle.

"Whatever it is, it's making you irritable!" Cal snapped, "I'd rather you just tell me what it is than you just keeping it in." She twisted her spear roughly, making the creature screech in pain as its head was wrenched to the side, then she kicked it in the bottom jaw and made its head ring.

"You're starting to bother me, you know." Toby said, stopping fully in his fight. A raptor saw this, and went for him, but he snapped his arm up and grabbed its snout, then pushed it so roughly back that it went tumbling head over tail down the slope, hearing it splash into the river nearby.

"Good, keep going with that, you're making progress!" Cal answered enthusiastically.

"Jeez, I don't know Calamity!" He yelled. "So what if I'm a bit moody, am I not allowed emotions or something?"

"You know, you're starting to sound a lot like someone I know." She said back to him, letting another raptor run straight for her, rushing her fiercely. She took a step backwards, and as the raptor same level with her, jammed the spear between its jaws and fell onto her back, kicking up with her legs and sending the raptor Toby's way. He sidestepped its falling body, then elbowed its temple, and as it turned away from him from the impact, grabbed its tail and threw it like he had done to the last few.

"Would you stop pestering me if I told you?" He asked, cracking his knuckles for her to throw the next one at him. All the ones on his side were gone now, and the last few were closer to Cal.

"That's the idea." She said, annoyed. These last three were being cautious, seeing how many of their comrades had fallen.

They took turn in snapping at her, testing her reflexes, and Toby watched without any intention of helping.

"I think it's this place, something doesn't feel right, but not just when there's danger around. It's like those night when your dad goes a little loopier than usual, it's off-putting and just puts everyone on edge."

"Dad hasn't been nuts for ages." Cal answered, poking the closest raptor roughly with the end of her spear, trying to provoke it.

"He was a couple of times during that war, but anyway, that's not the point. It's the feeling."

"Are you saying this place is insane like dad?" Cal said, more confused than before. The one she was poking finally snapped, and charged her. She smiled at her success, then leaped right over its body and landed behind it, hearing Toby trip it up and then grab its leg, bending it up as he stood on its back. He'd done this to Cal and a few younger scouts he'd been training before they left to find Jai. He would make them tolerate it until they said Uncle, but seeing as the raptor couldn't say such a thing, he twisted the leg until the raptor screeched in pain, then let it go with a light sprain. It stumbled into the jungle in a panicked state, but got away.

"No, not really." Toby looked around. "It's more like this place is _sickly_ insane, or just sick."

"Is that all? You're being crabby because a place feels a little off."

"Hey, you've been a bit of a pain in the ass too." He said, crossing his arms. "You've been tossing at night, and you snap angrily almost every day around noon, and until you go to sleep you're in a bad mood, then pretend nothing happened the next morning. It's getting tiresome."

Cal couldn't say anything, but she felt the guilt crawl up inside her, and sit on her heart like a haughty distant relative in your home. She hadn't realised she'd been so bad. She'd known they'd both been wearing down recently, but hadn't known just how much of that she was taking out on Toby.  
As the final raptor finally leaped to her, she only sidestepped it and let Toby trip it up, then punch it hard and dusted off his paws.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly, rubbing her arm. Toby looked up with wide eyes, as if alarmed by what she had said, then swiftly recovered and relaxed.

"I'm sorry too. I didn't tell you earlier, and ended up doing the same thing as you." He laughed nervously. "I guess we're just as bad as each other."

She smiled at him. "Thanks though, for letting me know. I'll try not to lose it from now on."

"Same here. How 'bout we just tell each other when the other is being a bother?"

"Not that it'll work much on me." Cal said, and laughed, but then nodded. "Deal, rat-boy. I don't know how to deal with the tossing though, sorry."

"I have a few ideas, but you're not going to like them."

"If it involved your fists and my head, then no, I won't."

* * *

They walked back to the river in better spirits than they had for a few weeks, only to find their fire out. Both frowned deeply in the dark.

"Okay, weird." Toby said, kneeling down next to the pit. "I threw fresh logs on just before I heard you yelling." He felt the wood, his frown deepening. "It's wet!"

Cal brought her spear to both of her paws, sniffing. "There's something there, I just can't pin it."

Toby sniffed, his own nose stronger than hers, only her hearing was superior to his.

"It's not Jai," he said, "but it's definitely a _Mustela._ "

"Can you tell which one?" Cal said, thinking that if it was a wolverine or badger, they were in more trouble than she wanted, but if it was a mink or small otter, she could take it easily.

"I think it's marten."

Both tensed when they heard something that was definitely not the natural sounds of the jungle. Cal let her ears rotate until she had a more accurate direction of the sound, and indicated to Toby, and they both crouched to approach it.

When they got close enough to spot it, it turned out Toby was right. It was a marten, wondering along the shore of the river with a strange waddle.

"Maybe it's injured." Cal whispered to Toby, both of them stalking silently across the stony river shore.

"I don't smell blood," he sniffed once more, "but something is definitely off. Should we try talk to them?"

"They put out our fire. I'm not sure if they're going to be completely friendly." Cal answered, shaking her head. "The best we can do is get answers out of them quick."

Toby internally groaned, knowing exactly what she meant. "Fine, but I'm not doing it."

"Sure." She shrugged, not having reservation about tackling an unaware animal.

She left her spear with Toby, then took a few bounding leaps until she had thrown herself at the marten, pinning them to the rough ground, Toby jogging up to catch up.

"Okay who are you and why did you put out our fire?" Cal demanded, turning the Marten to her by grabbing their shoulders.

The marten, a middle-aged female it seemed, tilted its head with a grin. "Twinkle, twinkle, little spark. Why do you have to be so sharp?"  
Toby and Cal blinked, and exchanged a glance. Cal let the marten go slowly, who only stood up as if being tackled had been their plan all along.

"Red one, interesting. Must have Mars in their blood." The marten said, as if to someone next to them, and as if Cal and Toby couldn't hear her. "Black one. More common, no less powerful. Must be a moon."

Cal stood, standing rigidly. Toby's who's jaw hung in a confused gape, handed Cal's spear back to her while keeping his eyes locked on the marten. Cal took it back, doing the same.

"Um, excuse me, but why did you put our fire out?" Toby asked, but the marten continued on her own way, ignoring them completely, mumbling to herself. Sometimes Cal caught words like 'must return,', 'too late,' and 'he'll know by now.'

Cal's eyes widened, and she jogged to catch up with the marten again, grabbing her lightly by the shoulders. She was much smaller than Cal.

"If you have any marbles left, can you tell me if you've seen my brother Jai? He's a brown weasel with dark spots and a pale belly, and blue eyes." She said desperately.

Toby looked at her sadly. "Cal, she's lost it, look at her-,"

"Jai." The Marten said with a smile. "River-boy." She frowned. "Has blue eyes, like sky during the day. No stars left." She then looked up with a huge grin, and pointed at Toby with a shuddering excitement. "Not like his eyes. _His_ eyes are starlit-night!"

"She knows Jai!" Cal said, realising what the Marten was saying. She was right, Jai's eyes were like their father's, a bright blue. Cal of course had never seen the above-worlds blue sky, but knew from how their mother told it that Buck's eye was just like it, only brighter. "Can you take us to him?"

"Take you to the stars?" The Marten asked, then laughed in a hysterical way. "No. No, no, no, no, no!" she kept going. "You don't just go to stars! You coax them, obviously."

Cal's ears dropped, as well as her hopes. Toby was right. Whatever moment of almost-sanity this mammal had had, it was gone in a flash. But it was enough.

"All we have to do it follow her. A mammal this deranged doesn't just survive in the jungle without having a safe place to hide out." Cal said, about to release the marten, but Toby stopped her, grabbing the marten softly himself, and looking at her critically, his nose twitching.

"I can smell him on her. It's rough, but it's his."

Cal felt her relief growing, but she wouldn't let it consume her until she was sure.

They released her, and like before, she just wondered into the night, and they followed willingly.

Cal felt nervous now, about so many things, but she felt she needed to show Toby how much she appreciated his help now that they were close to their goal.

As they walked, she grabbed his paw gently. He'd grown more since they'd started traveling, and was easily her height now, so she didn't have to bend to grab it.  
He looked at her, as surprised as she was that she'd done such an Un-Cal like thing.

"Thanks, for everything, you know. Helping me stay alive and all that." She was still useless at words.

"Thanks for dragging me along." He said, squeezing her paw a little, then let it fall from his grip, despite his want of never letting it go. "And we only just started getting along."

"We do get along, don't we?" She asked.

"Yeah, but we've never had a fight before, like back there. I mean, we finally started figuring each other out, really."

Cal smiled. "Yeah, you're right. But it's not going to just stop when we find Jai, I promise. You're stuck with me for a while."

Toby rolled his eyes. "I don't doubt it."

 _P.s. guys, Mustela is the family of weasels, including polecats, stoats, wolverines, otters, badgers, beavers and that. I used to say things like 'stoats etc.' in my stories, and it started annoying me, so I figured that just saying Mustela would make more sense. Rat's aren't in this class, but I'm throwing them in it because they're really the only other thing that hangs out in the dino world._


	8. Chapter 8 On the Road Again

_Hiya! This ones kinda short but the next one is really long. Anyway, rights of Buck and the world are to Bluesky but my Oc's are mine._

"RISE AN' SHINE YA LAZY PACK O' MAMMALS!"

The yell shocked its way through the tunnels of the den, making most of the weasels jump from their sleep.

Adrian, recognizing the sound, grumbled and then turned back to his bedding, pulling it over his head.

Rufus rubbed his eyes, sighing. Ruby growled loudly from her chamber, and then stood in her doorway.

"Buck, ya yell again and I'll kill you!" She yelled towards his room.

He was standing in the doorway, waving his knife crazily. He bounded towards her, and grabbed her shoulders.

"Ge' those kits up Droopy Ruby, we're leaving." He leaped away from her, dodging her kick, and went to Adrian's room, knowing the young silver would be ignoring his loud antics.

Cabe appeared in the tunnel, yawning. "What's he on about now?"

Rufus shrugged, but Ruby growled and crossed her arms. "Who knows, he's off his rocker anyway. I guess he think it's a good idea to do it in the morning."

"It's barely morning." Ivory said as she appeared, looking and feeling more awake than the others. Buck's yell had scared her out of her fur, and she could still feel the adrenaline jumping under her skin. "There's no light outside."

"Where are we going?" Rufus asked, watching Buck dragging Adrian's hind leg from Adrian's chamber, hearing Adrian growing more and more annoyed.

"That's a surprise, bu' we gotta ge' movin' or we'll miss half the fun!" Buck replied.

"If you think for a second that we're going to look for Cal and Jai, you're going on your own." Rufus snapped. "They'll be fine without us, they've proved that much haven't they?"

"We're not goin' after _them,_ wha' would be the point o' tha'?" Buck said. "Cal would jus' pommel me anyway. We're headin' West mammals, if only Adrian would play along."

Adrian, finally have been dragged from his chamber, glared up. "I'm not going. Trudy and I have students, and I have duties. You lot might have abandoned the village completely, but I haven't."

"Come on bud, when was the las' time ya had a real adventure?" Buck asked, dropping his friends leg.

"When you dragged me into a war, Buck." Adrian said grumpily, standing and dusting himself off. "Like I said, I have to stay."

"Trudy can handle the students on her own." Cabe said. "She's been doing a lot of students by herself for a while now."

"He knows that." Rufus said, growling like his sister now. He was tempted to tell them Adrian's secret, the real reason he wanted to stay, but something close to honour kept it from leaving his tongue. Adrian looked frightened for a moment that he would say it, but Rufus let the moment go and shrugged. "Maybe he's just scared of your antics now Buck."

"We should be too." Cabe muttered, rubbing his nose.

"Can we go back to bed or what?" Ruby said, crossing her arms.

"No! Course not. Grab the kits and yer weapons mates, we're headin' out." Buck grabbed Adrian's upper arm, and despite the younger weasels arguing and resistance, they managed to make it outside. Finally, Adrian broke Buck's grip and twisted away.

"I told you, I'm not going anywhere." Adrian's paws were in fists. "Stop this Buck, not all of us have the freedoms you do, and you know it."

Buck shrugged. "Fine, miss ou' then. We're going on an adventure, seeya later boring weasel!"

"You're being a bit harsh Buck." Rufus said, seeing that the one-eyed weasel was starting to really get to Adrian.

 _Maybe he knows the real reason, and is trying to push Adrian into admitting it._ It seemed like something Buck would do.

"Is this about your night time project?" Ruby said, bored. Both Rufus and Adrian looked surprised at her words, and Buck grinned slyly, knowing now he was getting to something.

"What do you mean?" Adrian asked warily.

"You sneak off an awful lot at night, I figured you're running some weird class." Ruby saw the look Rufus and Adrian exchanged, and frowned. "I'm way off, aren't I?"

Ivory laughed tiredly, Collette yawning around her neck. "It's about a girl obviously."

Rufus smiled, but Adrian rolled his eyes.  
"So what if it is?"

Buck put on his devilish grin, and nudged Adrian with his elbow. "Good on ya mate! I knew you were up t' somethin'."

"I'm not 'up to' anything, I'm just seeing a girl."

"For a few months now, if I remember right." Rufus mumbled. The cat was out of the bag now, there was no point in hiding the rest of the information. Adrian glared at him, so he walked to stand behind Ivory, picking up Bluey from the rest of the kits that followed them out.

"Well there's only way t' fix tha', bring her too!" Buck said.

"No."

"Then tell her you're goin' on holiday."

"Buck, no, because going on holiday with you means I might not come back."

Lucy smiled at him, "We're going on a safe route West, so there won't be any danger. It's for the kits."

Adrian seethed on the spot, and Rufus wondered why. If he really didn't want to go, why not just stick by his answer, no?

"Adrian, it seems you might need to loosen up a bit." Ivory said gently. The look he gave her was soft and unsure, and Rufus felt his eye twitch with jealousy.

 _I'm going to have to learn to control this jealousy thing,_ he thought to himself. Ivory wasn't his possession.

"I'm sorry guys, but I don't think I can." Adrian said, softened by Ivory's words.

"It's not just the girl, is it?" Ruby said, sounding almost bored. Rufus imagined she was only interested in bringing him to even out the water game teams. Cabe never carried anyone on his back, and Ruby couldn't be without a counterpart in the games.

Adrian rubbed the back of his neck. "There's just a bit of…confusion back at the village. Without you two around to keep the peace," he looked at Buck and Lucy, "it's gone a bit haywire. Nothing I can't handle but it would be a bit much for Shanae if I left it all behind."

Buck nodded his understanding, clearly disappointed at Adrian not having a break, but didn't push any further.

"I think I'll stay too." Cabe said, trying to sound more awake.

"Cabe?" Lucy said, the expression on her face a stronger concern that Rufus had ever seen, making him again realise how much he didn't know about Lucy.

"I know what's going on, Adrian's told me. Please guys, since Cal and Jai ran off, I just feel useless. I want to help Adrian. I don't think I could leave here without Cal as well."

Lucy reached up and brushed his cheek in a motherly fashion. "Alright, and you know you can stay with Jess."

"Actually, Mum's been trying to get back to me…she said she doesn't care about me, you know, being gay and all." He waved a paw casually. "Apparently she's leaving Dad and all that."

"Oh shit." Rufus said, the first time he'd sworn in a while, but nobody blinked an eye over it in light of Cabe's news.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Lucy said.

He shrugged. "Wasn't really too important. I just don't think it's a good time to leave."

Buck rubbed his eye. "Okay, okay, you two are excused. Anyone else wanna drop some bombs?"

Everyone looked at each other, but no one came forward.

Buck clapped his paws together. "Right! Ivory, Ruby, Rufus, grab th' kits an' yer weapons. We're goin' in ten."

* * *

As Buck commanded, everyone grabbed their weapons, the kits' armour, and prepared some packs full of Lucy's rarest and most important herbs, one's they wouldn't find in the east.

Ruby held a pack open as Lucy carefully wrapped some vital plants in packs made of dried and weaved reeds.

"What are all these for? I mean, you and Buck said that the trip would be safe."

 _"Fairly_ safe. To tell you the truth, Buck and I haven't been that way in a long, long while. Some things might have changed, some poisonous plants might have spread along the path, certain types of snakes could have migrated to the area. You can never truly predict what you'll find. Buck doesn't like preparing for trouble, he works around it, but I'm different."

"You and Buck are like night and day." Ruby commented.

Lucy laughed. "Some think so." She smiled sadly. "But it was Sasha who said we were like Sun and Stars."

Ruby immediately saw how true it was.

Lucy did up the pack in her paws and they left the herb room.

* * *

It was easier than Ivory would have thought to leave the Grandfather tree. She loved it there, but the best weeks in her life had been spent with Buck and his family, travelling through the jungle, eluding the mammals of the village. The memories of that trip was what heightened her excitement for this one, and her cheeks hurt from smiling as she watched the kits weaving between the jungle trees, chasing each other through the underbrush, equally excited to discover new places. Collette was hanging from her back, arms gripped around her neck. She'd had a light sleep, and was too tired to lay with her siblings, or walk with the others.

Buck lead the way, paw in paw with Lucy, occasionally swinging her paw dramatically and making her laugh.  
Rufus appeared next to Ivory and made her jump.

"Sorry," he said in amusement, smiling at her mockingly. "Still jumpy in the jungle."

"Only when you're around."

The kits ran in front of them across the path.

"Have you ever been this way? To where Buck's taking us, I mean." Ivory asked, shifting Collette higher onto her back. The kit had started to slip in her drowsy state.

Rufus shook his head. "Ruby and I never travelled very far out of the village, only far enough to feel safe, but we never went beyond the scout's borders. They occasionally brought us more food, or news from the village."

"I wonder how far Cal and Toby have travelled now." Ivory thought allowed, looking back over her shoulder to the other direction, but all she saw was vegetation and the small animal path. She had only seen the sight of the Canine Mountain range once, from the cave on Devil's mountain, the stand-alone peak she, Ruby and Rufus had hidden in a long time ago. It had only been a small, dark grey line in the horizon, too small to think it was anything other than a dark expanse of land.

"Far. Very far. I saw Jai's face when he ran off that night. He didn't look like he ever wanted to come back." Rufus said, not glancing back like Ivory had done. He never looked back. It was part of his charm.

"Buck won't be taking us anywhere particularly dangerous." Rufus said, sounding almost disappointed.

"He just doesn't want to put the kits in danger is all."

"It's not just that." Rufus said. "He gets tired more easily. Can't move as fast. I almost flipped him the other day, during one of our sparring sessions. I pretended I didn't notice his surprise."

"You think he's losing his grip?" Ivory said, afraid of the answer. Buck, the ultimate guardian and protector. If he was weakening, where would that leave them? The ones that were second best to him, aside from Lucy, weren't with them. Cal, Jai, and Toby, were all off somewhere they didn't know, and Adrian was too afraid of something to leave the village.

"He's just getting old, and I don't think he likes it." Rufus said.

They walked on in silence, thinking. Rufus occasionally picked a flower from the plants around them, and handed them to Collette who remained on Ivory's back, and the small female would weave them somewhere into Ivory's fur. Some on her head, on her shoulders, her neck, and behind her ears. Soon, Ivory was littered with them, and Collette was in the process of making a flower crown.

Rufus laughed quietly. "You look like one of those deadly plants."

Ivory faked looking aghast, and whacked him lightly in the belly. "What do you mean by that?"

He caught her wrist as she went to push him again, and held it. "I mean you're one of those plants that lures prey with its beauty."

"And then I eat them?"

"Okay, you're right, maybe a deadly plant isn't right."

"Just a pretty one?"

"Whatever lets you sleep at night."

He released her wrist as they walked, and she crossed her arms, pretending to be angry, but she couldn't stop the tightness in her lips from trying not to smile.

He could see it. He could always see it.

It was part of his charm.


	9. Chapter 9 Strangers

_Hey guys, just going to say that I realized I've made a mistake, that I will edit later on, but for now I'll just tell you. Cal and Toby are heading NORTH EAST in the story, while Buck and the others are heading WEST. Unfortunately, I wrote Buck and the rest of the family were going on a trip west, but later realised I f****** got mixed up. One day I'm going to do a piece of graphic art of the map I have in my head of this world, and upload it somewhere so you guys can all get a visual, but for now just bare with picturing it. Sorry, and I'll be sure to edit it later._

The Marten walked for half an hour, that would have been ten minutes had she'd been going the pace Cal and Toby usually kept. But this mammal ambled, shuffled it's way along the river bank, and then made a curved turn into the jungle. Cal and Toby remained extra vigilant, after their encounter with the wiry raptors. Cal often did a 360 degree turn on the spot, or would leap up the trunks of trees to keep an extra eye out.

She had just finished one of these miniature reconnaissance's and returned, when she noticed the Marten was gone.

"Toby, where'd she go!?" Cal asked. Toby appeared from behind a bush from where he'd been checking the area himself.

"Oh great." He muttered. "Hold on, I'll pick up her scent."

He took one sniff and pointed to a tree, and they jogged over.

There was no hollow or entrance to a den they could see, but Cal's foot met very soft, _springy_ earth.

"Trap door?" she asked.

"A really good one. It's practically seamless." Toby said, going to all fours and prying with his claws until he found the rim, and pulled up the top of an entrances door, made of dirt, roots, and rotting leaves.

"The leaf litter mostly hides her scent."

"Gods knows how a deranged marten came up with that." Cal said, impressed.

"Maybe it wasn't her." Toby said, and Cal realised her mistake. This kind of ingenuity was exactly something her brother would think up. While Cal would maybe put trip wires around a den she would dig, or choose a particularly strong tree like the Grandfather tree, Jai would make something practically invisible, and hard to find for those who didn't know where it was.

"Is he here?" She asked, sniffing around.

When his scent reached her nose, her heart quickened.

"He's not at the moment but he was, not very long ago." Toby said, confirming her own thoughts.

The door next to them opened, and the marten crawled out, with an object in her paws.

She sat down at the entrance, looking completely at ease, ignoring her two guests as usual. She turned the object over in her paws, and over again, smiling as she did so.

Cal sat down next to her, aware that Toby raised his head and reverted to his scout instincts while Cal had her guard down.

"What is that?" Cal asked the marten.

The marten looked at her, and Cal wasn't sure if it was her used to being ignored by the marten that made the look more intense, or whether it was particularly strong.

"Dreams!" The marten whispered loudly, harshly, and offered the object to Cal, who took it gently. It was a carving of a light-coloured wood, which had small silver river stones embedded into it to make it shimmer in what light could be made from the above ground world. It had five points, perfectly spaced and smoothly finished, barely a nick in the wood that could be seen.

"Toby, is this what a star looks like?" Cal asked.

Toby chanced a glance at what she was holding, before securing his gaze around them again. "I know less than you about it. If Adrian were here he could tell us. He's the youngest one to go up there, and that was years ago."

"Jai made it." She was sure of it. This marten couldn't be as good as Jai at carving. She looked up at Toby.

"You get some rest, I'll keep an eye out for anything. I'll wake you when I get tired."

Toby hesitated, but must have seen she was telling the truth. She wasn't like Jai, or her dad. She couldn't lie to save a life, she was even worse at it than her mom.

Especially around Toby.

"Okay."

He came over to her and went to all fours, turning in a circle next to her side before curling up, his back pressed into her hip.

* * *

They changed shifts twice, the marten sitting awake the whole time, staring at the ice-sky above them dreamily.

Cal was taking her turn resting when Toby shook her awake, holding a paw softly over her mouth. The world was light with coming dawn, and it was almost noisy with bird and dinosaur calls. Cal stiffened, but stayed silent, staring into Toby's black, black eyes before she heard something coming. It was small, and travelling in a hurry without running, managing to stay under the ground plants of the jungle.

Toby removed his paw, and Cal stood slowly, staying tightly wound and ready to launch if she had to.

The marten got up calmly and walked towards the denser plants, smiling.

Someone appeared, and gave a sigh of relief. "Alma, you're okay. You know not to go off without telling me or I end up looking for you all night."

Alma, the marten, laughed as if she'd not just been given a stern talking to. "But I found Mars, River Boy, and a moon too!"

She pointed to where Toby and Cal were still hidden by morning shadow, and the newcomer turned his head.  
Cal's breath caught in her throat.

"C..Cal? Toby?" Jai stepped back, looking between them.

Cal was frozen from head to foot, her heart stuck in her chest. Maybe it was a trick of the light, the remaining darkness tricking her into thinking that part of her brother was made of shadow.

Jai clearly didn't know what to do either, just stared at her in shock.

"Jai, we didn't come here to hurt you." Toby said calmly.

Jai let out a breath, blinking a few times, and relaxed. "I… I know. Sorry. I know there's a lot to explain-,"

"What happened to you?!" Cal shrieked, and Jai flinched back.

"Cal, please, don't be mad. I don't know why I ran. After they got dad I couldn't stay-,"

"I'm not talking about that. What happened to _you!?"_

Jai blinked, then looked down at himself. "Oh. That. Yeah." He laughed nervously.

The right side of Jai's body was lacking fur, but what was underneath wasn't skin. A black, smooth, leathery layer was there instead. It was patchy in some places, and it hadn't really reached his face, only a few scattered dots were on his cheek and chin. The fur had survived in some places, adding to the ragged look.

"You two really shouldn't be here." Jai said, instead of answering Cal's question.

"Neither should you." Cal said harshly back.

Jai opened his mouth and closed it again. His face turned slowly sour.

"I didn't want you to follow me. Go back home Calamity."

"No! Not without you telling me what's going on. You ran off! At least give me a reason. I was starting to think you were dead."

Toby looked at her, but she ignored him. She had never told him her thoughts, her real beliefs that maybe their search was useless, that Jai had really gotten himself eaten along the way and all of it had been for nothing.

But it wasn't. Here he was, fine and dandy and telling her to go home after she'd travelled this long, and Toby too, to find him.

"I don't belong back there, Cal!" Jai snapped. Cal felt a retort rise, but she held it back. She had asked for a reason, and she was about to get it whether she liked the reason or not. "I'm not like you, or Mum, or," he swallowed, "Dad. It was always you who was destined to be the glory child, the one with all the power and fame. You were the fighter, I never was. You could protect yourself, and whoever else you wanted. You made friends. Mammals like you. Hell, dino's like you! I would always come off second best."

He breathed in, and growled it out as he finished, "With Dad gone, I couldn't go back. I never knew how much I relied on him till he was dead, Cal. I would never have survived that fight without him, and I never would survive further. I can hide from dino's until the sky cracks open, but I can't hide from a family that would always love you more."

Cal waited for a few seconds, before having her turn. "Um, first off, Dad's alive."

Jai's body jerked as he stood rigidly straight, hearing her, but she continued before he could interrupt her. "Second, what the HELL Jai? Love me _more?_ You do realise you were always Mum's favourite, right, or did you forget about her too?! Did you forget mum exists once you saw Dad get a splinter in his side? Did you forget Adrian, Jess, Trudy, Abu? They didn't love me any more than they loved you, so don't be like that. You're just being selfish."

Jai's breathing had visibly increased, as he looked at the ground in front of him. "Dad's alive?"

"Yeah."

He shook his head. "Doesn't change anything. I still had to leave."

"Well if you'd told us you were leaving, then we would have let you go! I wouldn't have followed you for months on end to the other side of those bloody _mountains,_ if I'd known you were thinking straight. But no. You ran off in the middle of a battle thinking you were doing anyone any good. And you still haven't told me what all _that's_ about." She pointed to the dark, leathery skin that was trying to encase him.

Jai swallowed, and Toby spoke up.  
"I think you both need a bit of a break."

Cal whirled, about to say something, but he interrupted her. "Cal, Jai needs a bit of time to think about some stuff, so do you." He looked to the sky. "And we need some more rest." He turned to Jai. "We'll be back later."

By the way he said it, Cal knew he was warning Jai not to try and run off. Jai seemed to as well, because he nodded with a dark expression, and said to Alma, who'd been sitting and watching the whole ordeal with rapt interest, "Come on Alma, we both need some food."  
Alma nodded enthusiastically and followed him to the trap door, where he paused and said to Toby and Cal,

"Don't drink from anywhere but the river, unless you want this." He had indicated to the black invasion on his skin, and then dropped into the den, closing the entrance disguise behind him.  
Cal stood in the morning light with her arms crossed and her head bowed, feeling hot moisture at the rim of her eyes. She would not get mad. She _would not,_ get mad.

"Let's find a log Cal," Toby said quietly, and when she didn't move, he pried her paws gently from where she was gripping her own arm, and tugged her away from where Jai had disappeared.

It was only a few dozen feet into the jungle where Toby found a hollow log. He let Cal go in first before doing a final check and following her in.  
In the darker, warmer log, Toby heard Cal sniff, and watched as she furiously rubbed her face with a forearm, turning away from him, clearly ashamed.

"It's okay Cal." He said gently, putting a paw on her arm. "He's just figuring some stuff out. But he's alive."

"Yeah," Cal laughed cruelly, the sound falling dully in the log, "He's alive. But nothing's changed. Dad always said he might snap one day. He was right." Her whole body shuddered but her shoulders kept shaking long after the rest of her had stilled.

* * *

Toby wasn't sure what to do at first. This was Cal. She was tough, unpredictable, and unbothered by anxious thoughts and doubts. Her mind was sure. Not now, though.

He shuffled closer and put his forehead on her shoulder blade, a paw on her shoulder, trying to still her. She eventually did, and sagged into the side of the wood, then turned on her side and put her face into Toby's neck, curling up like a frightened kit to his chest.

He'd slept close to her for months now, both their bodies wound tightly around the other for warmth and protection, possibly even for comfort, but never before had it made his heart beat like this. He placed his paw on her head softly, and combed his claws through her fur. It raised the fur on her spine in goose bumps at first, then slowly she grew used to it. When he stopped, she nudged his arm to keep going, and he did, until she fell asleep.

* * *

It was near midday when she finally awoke, finding Toby with food in his paws, some nuts and roots.

"There seems to be no fruit trees nearby." He explained, as she gently took a root from his paws.

She wasn't interested. All she wanted to know was what was going through her brother's mind.

And her own.

She ate quickly, then crawled out of the log.

"Let's get this over with, so we can go home." She said.

"Cal, wait, what are you saying?" Toby said, scrambling to follow her.

"Jai's come here and he wants to stay, why should we have to? If he's not coming, we should just leave."

"You're just saying that because you're angry."

"Why should that make me any less serious?"

Toby stood in front of her, looking at her sternly. "Because you're a bad thinker."

Cal growled in her throat, and felt her anger reverberate like the growl in her chest, and she wanted to launch at him, but all it would do would prove him right.

"Whatever, come on."

Toby, feeling a little deflated compared to several hours ago, followed her reluctantly to Jai's den.

When they reached it, it looked very different in daylight. Very, very ordinary. The tree wasn't even a large one, the roots wouldn't have been as sturdy as some of the other jungle trees in the area. Cal wasn't sure why Jai would pick such an ordinary, invisible spot, if it could be dug up by a keen raptor in a matter of seconds.  
Cal honestly thought that the only reason she found it was because Jai was already sitting outside on a nearby mossy stone, carving at wood with a new knife, his bow and a set of old and new arrows beside him. Alma was there too, arranging dozens and dozens of silvery, shimmering stones on the ground, muttering to herself.

Jai looked up when she and Toby emerged from the jungle, looking unsure, and Toby knew it was because of Cal's unpredictable attitude.

Cal looked at him for a while, then shifted her attention to Alma. She indicated to the deranged Marten with her head, and asked,  
"What's her story?"

Jai looked at her, and was clearly as glad as Toby for the stall of the conversation.

"She found me." He looked back down at his carving, and his steady paws shaved off another feather-thin piece of wood. "I crossed the mountains, but I was a dead mammal walking. I came to the river," he indicated further East to where Cal and Toby had arrived from, "and fell right in. When I woke up on a bank, she was poking at me, kept muttering about my light not being out just yet. She calls me a lot of things, but one of her favourites is River-boy."

"How did you not drown?" Toby asked.

Jai shrugged. "I have vague memories. I must have been awake. I would have just kept my head up I suppose. Anyway, she didn't really help me, not on purpose anyway. I just followed her here to her den. It had an exposed entrance, and it was tiny, only enough for her to slip in and sleep. And that was when she was skinnier."

"She doesn't look too skinny." Cal said, and Toby nodded. Alma looked a fairly healthy weight, if not a little under, but that was normal considering the circumstances.  
Jai shook his head darkly. "When I found her, I think she was just scavenging on dead fish and dino carcass'. She stank, and she was little more than fur on bones. I started getting her food, but she doesn't help. She occasionally goes off like last night, and I have to find her before she stumbles into deadly plants, which I've had to pull her from a few times. She doesn't realise she's in danger until it's almost too late, and once it's over," he snapped his claws, "she forgets the whole thing, or at least she doesn't talk about it."

"She's even crazier than Dad."

"Way more. The only thing she talks about is stars."

"She called me mars. What the hell is mars?"

"As far as I can tell, some stars have names, but she says things like 'Jupitar', and I'll ask which star that is, and she whacks me and says 'not a star silly', but bloody doesn't tell me what it is."

"Jupitar!" Alma exclaimed, seeming to only hear that only word out of the whole conversation "Lord of the Giants, with a wound as red as blood, swirling mass of strength."

"Cooooooool." Cal said, eyeing the female warily. "She havin' a dig at me?"

"Nope. She doesn't know a thing about us. Just what she interprets through her weird stars."

"Weird."

"Totally."

"So, what about you?" Cal turned, her voice accusatory. "What about that?" She indicated with her spear to his side.

He sighed. "That's a long story."

"It's not exactly like I've got to get home before dinner."

His mouth twitched up in amusement, ignoring the venom in his sister's voice. "Alright."

"After I had helped Alma out a bit, digging her a bigger den, putting the trap door over it, and starting to learn all about this side of the mountains, I took us north a little for a few days, and ended up finding something…horrible.

I'm glad Dad never got to this side of the mountains. The lands sick. Really, really sick. The plants are poisonous, dying, or bitter and inedible. And the dinos are dead, dying, or going insane with the sickness. I drank some water from a pond, but it was too late when I realised it was wrong. So wrong. I hoped it would just make me sick, but it would have just been too easy I suppose. After a week there was dark patch the size of a fist. After a month it was over most of my side."

"But you've been gone for four months. Shouldn't it be all over you?" Cal asked.

"Yes, and I should be dead like so many of the other creatures I found with the same thing. But I found a cure."  
He looked intensely at Calamity. "That's why I can't leave. It's spreading further and further south every week, and it's going to get to our side if I don't find a way to stop it."

"In case you hadn't noticed bro, there's a whole mountain range between them."

"That's what I thought too, but to the East there's a break in the mountains, about fifty klicks across. It's enough for it to get through. I've been working on ways of stopping it but, it's just not enough." He reached behind him and grabbed a wooden cube, but pulled the top off, revealing that it was hollow inside. There was a dried plant in it, and it stunk, when dried plants usually didn't. "This is what's causing it. I don't know where it's originally from, but its roots secrete a poison and it's getting into the still water systems. Rivers seem to be okay, that's why Alma and I stick around here. Small, slow streams are bad though."

"Okay." She didn't move towards him, just looked at him from where she stood. "You wanna stop it?"

"If you could see what it would do to home, Cal, you would want to stop it too."  
Cal looked away, crossing her arms and fidgeting. After a little while of chewing on her lip, the turned back to him.

"Fine." She looked at Toby over her shoulder. "You in?"

He shrugged. "What else do I have to do?"

"You could watch Alma," Jai answered, "she tends to wander."

"No thanks."

Cal smiled at Toby, then turned to her brother with a harsher expression. She wasn't going to let him off easily.

"So how did you cure yourself? What's the cure?"

"It's Barberry, and Milkvetch root juice mixed together. It took me ages to get it right, but it worked. I haven't had to be re-dosed either. I've been measuring it's spread since I noticed it, and since I got the last formula, it hasn't spread at all, and that was a good two months ago."

"Cool, so where do we get it?"

Jai sighed. "Sit down."

Calamity glared at him, then reluctantly plonked down next to her brother. Toby stayed found a tall rock nearby, and perched on it in the crouched way that a rat typically sat. Cal couldn't help watching him for a little while as he rotated his ears and slowly scanned the jungle in a full cycle.

She looked away before she got distracted from her brother's explanation.

"It's extinct down here."

Cal's head turned so fast that's he felt her neck muscle wrench in protest. "What? How do you know for sure?"

"Because I've had to scour the bottom of the mountains for just the one plant that I managed to get. It was the only one. I suspect that it fell from the above ground world and grew where it fell. The ground around it was barren, it only managed just to take to the bad soil. Even the seeds didn't spread. I've been searching every day, sometimes going for days and weeks at a time, but there's none."

Cal put her head in her paws. "How did you even consider it, if it wasn't even here? What do we do?"

"I knew it could be a possible cure because it's related to goldenseal. Mum told me about it. Goldenseal grows down here but she'd never seen a Barberry."  
Cal sat up with a grin. "Then why don't we just find some-,"

"I already tried Goldenseal Cal. It slowed it down but it didn't stop it."

Cal deflated again. "Then what do we do? They're plants right, they can be pulled out?"

"Yes, but it takes a lot of work. The roots are fibrous, and they can grow back if enough of the plant is left in the ground. If we manage to pull them out, we'll have to burn them."

Cal snorted. "Good luck with that, the rains are coming."

"Even I know how to maintain a fire in the rain, Cal, and so do you."

Cal rubbed her head. "Okay. So, can it be transferred from the dinos who have it?"

"Yes, if they bite. I saw it while looking for the Barberry."

"Dammit." Calamity muttered to herself. "So we need to not only dig all the plants up and burn them, but find enough Barberry to cure the affected dinos." She looked back towards Toby, but he wasn't paying attention. He was having to keep an eye on the jungle and also one on Alma, who seemed to have found a game on throwing small nut shells at him. If he was quick enough, he could dodge them or bat them away, but it was hard while also keeping watch.

Jai took a deep breath. "The Barberry might be extinct down here, but I know where they are."

Cal looked at him out the corner of her eye, and he glanced at her, then glanced away.  
"You're not joking. You really mean that you intend to go up there."

"I do."

Cal saw Toby's attention change from where he was sitting.

"The above ground world? A place we've _never_ been. We don't know it up there! If we don't freeze, we'll just die of starvation!"

"Cal, you crossed the mountains knowing that you might die doing it. You didn't know what was going to be over here. You took that risk. If you want to help me, you have to take this one."

Cal hung her head again, then stood and started pacing.  
Toby leaped from his rock naturally and came towards her.

He stood in her path, and before she was going to step around him gracefully, he held up his paws. Realizing what Toby was thinking, she steadied her stance, and he steadied his, then she lifted her paws to chin level in fists, and then started battering at his paws with her fists.

"Uhhh, what are you doing?" Jai asked, watching the scene with confusion.

"I can't think. This helps." Cal answered shortly. After a few more hits, her brain was working again.

"Alright, we go get the cure first. Plants can't grow as fast as dinos can travel. If any cross that pass and spread it below the mountain range, it could be too late. The only problem is how we're going to survive up there. We don't even know where to find it."

"I also have to collect enough to finish the job in one go, or bring down seeds to grow it here." Jai said. A pattern was emerging between them.

"Once we've collected enough, you make up your weird potion, and we go separate ways on pterosaurs and give it to as many dinos as we find with it. How did you take it?"

"I only needed to swallow it. I might have to trial it on dinos at first to see if they need a stronger dose."

Cal nodded, feeling her skin heat up beneath her fur from her exercise. She was throwing in extra moves occasionally, like a high kick or elbow, and Toby himself was starting to move away from her, dodge some hits, or hit back and make her block before she was able to advance again.

"And then, we go get Dad and the others. As many mammals as we can who will help us. We'll fly back through the pass."

Jai's face twisted with many emotions. "Why?! Can't we manage on our own-."

"No, and you know it. I'm meant to be the stupid one here Jai, not you. Jeez. If we're going to dig up hundreds o' these evil-ass plants, we need Mum and Dad's help, and the rest too. Rufus is strong, Ruby too. And Toby here can probably rip them up by hand." To prove her point, she put all her power into her next right swing, but Toby caught it with barely a quiver in his arm. They stayed like that for a moment, signalling the end of their match, and then both let their arms drop, Cal slightly panting, but there was no evidence that Toby had been affected from the work.

Jai made a face, but nodded. "You're right. Sorry, I wasn't thinking straight."

"No, you were thinking about how mad Mum and Dad would be when you see them again."

Jai looked away. "Yeah. So, we have a plan?"

"More or less." Cal set down in the dirt.

"We do have another problem though." Toby said, and the siblings turned their attention to him. He hadn't spoken in a long while. "How do we navigate? We all know how it works down here, but up there, there's a horizon, and changing sky's."

"Well, the sun rises in the East and sets in the west. Dad says it's even easier on clear days."

"Exactly. Clear days. Up there, there's going to be snow and cloudy days. Then what? Plus, the fact that we could be turned around at night."

For the first time in months, Cal heard her brother laugh. The sound startled her, and she looked at him, alarmed.

"Actually, night would be even easier than day." Jai said.

Both Cal and Toby frowned at each other. Jai stood from where he was sitting and shook out his fur. "Come on, I'll show you something. Alma, stop playing with that Wait-a-while, seriously."

Alma stopped poking at the vines that had spikes bigger than her claws, and bounced over with a grin. "Are we going to see them, River-boy?"

"Uhuh. You lead the way."

Alma clapped her paws excitedly, then dived into the open door to the den. Jai indicated for Cal and Toby to follow, and they dropped into it reluctantly, being unused to the confined space. Jai closed the hatch after them as he came down himself. It took a few moments for Cal's eyes to adjust. Jai had dug small enough holes into the top of the den to let in some more light, and she was able to follow an excited Alma much easier than she would have without the aiding light.

She followed her down a sloping tunnel, where it got darker and darker until it was too deep to carve the lights. Eventually, she had to slow to a stop, and allow Toby to brush past her so he could lead. He grabbed her paw to lead the way, and she gripped on tight, staying close to him. Normally, she wouldn't even hold paws with her mother, but Toby was different. It seemed he was an exception to everything she had thought she was like.

Eventually, she was led to the left into what she knew was a chamber, and her eyes burned for a moment as she got used to the light.

There was a small fire burning in a pit, and a strange stone suspended above the flame with a wooden stand. The stone was clear as water, and sharply angled, reflecting the fire's light across the ceiling. There, dozens of stones like the ones Alma had been playing with outside, were embedded into the walls and ceiling. The room seemed to be a perfect dome, it must have taken Jai a week to get it right, and it was huge. Cal was able to turn in a full circle, over and over and over again, twirling in the strange…starlight.

"Stars? Is this what they look like?" Cal asked dreamily. It almost scared her. The abyss around her, even though she knew the walls were only a dozen steps away.

"I think so. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but Alma seems to have the night sky all locked completely in her head. I was going to go above ground in a few days with just her and do as we planned, because she's made this. I've managed to find a few significant stars, some in the North, a few in the East." Jai nodded to himself, his leathery side reflecting some of the reflected light. "We can do it."

Cal looked at Toby, and laughed at how funny he looked. He looked at her and smiled.

"What?"

"Look at your coat."

His fur and eyes were so dark that they reflected part light around them, and he looked like he was speckled in light.

He laughed, and did a spin. "Hm, does it suit me?"

"Definetely." Cal laughed, then turned back to her brother.

"So, we're really doing this?"

Jai nodded, looking around, as Alma babbled to herself in the background. "Yep, we have to."

"We're saving the world?"

"Looks like."

Cal grinned. "Sweet."

* * *

They spent hours in the chamber, Jai telling them what he could get out of Alma about the stars, and putting their knowledge of the above-ground world together from what Buck, Adrian and Ivory had told them.

When they climbed up to the surface again, it was already night, Cal was yawning every thirty seconds, and Alma had already fallen asleep hours ago, snoring loudly and muttering several now-familiar astrology terms in her dreams.

"Jeez, I'm so tired. I'm going to bed." Cal said, stumbling towards the log she and Toby had stayed in the night before. "You comin' Toby?"

"I need a drink, I'll be there in a minute." Toby said. Cal hesitated, then waved at them both tiredly.

Toby turned to go to the river, and Jai turned and walked with him.

"So, you've been travelling with Cal this whole time."

Toby smiled. "Yep."

"So how's that been?"

Toby pouted, thinking, remembering. The times they've dangled from clips, been strangled by ravenous plants, Cal having fights with raptors and kicking them out of trees, all in one day, and then falling exhausted into a pile that night, hungry and ragged.

Toby hung his head. "Exhausting."

"Oh." Then Jai smiled. "Well, that's my sister."

"She's been fine, it's the trip that's been exhausting."

"You believe that?" Jai said, looking at Toby sceptically.

Toby rubbed his temples. "Okay, you got me. She is too."

Jai laughed.  
"But," Toby said, "It's worth it. None of it bothers me. She's just so full of life, sometimes it's hard to keep up."

Jai stopped in his tracks, and stared at Toby with wide eyes. Toby eventually stopped as well, and turned and looked at him.

"Jai? What is it?"

"You love her."

Toby sighed. "Maybe a _crush._ But I don't think it's l-,"

"Yes it is!" Jai said, looking horrified.

"How would you know?" Toby snapped, feeling a little frustrated, and a little uncomfortable. He really never expected to have this conversation, especially with Jai.

"Because Mum and Dad talk that way about each other. Sasha used to talk that way about Trudy. That's so weird."

"Hey, no offense Jai, but this kinda isn't your business." Toby muttered darkly.

Jai blinked, then calmed down. "Sorry, yeah. But I mean, it's my sister."

Toby continued walking, rubbing the back of his neck.

 _Is it that severe? I thought it would go away, but it just…hasn't._

Was 'it'…love? He didn't know. How could he?

"Look, I'm not going to talk about it." Toby said. He made it to the river, and took a drink, mainly so he didn't have to talk.

"I'm sorry that I brought it up, it just was kinda sudden."

Toby didn't answer. He finished drinking, then he washed his paws and turned to leave.

"I don't know what it is, but right now it's not important." He explained as he walked away. "It's just going to shake everything up, and we don't need that. We just found you again and Cal is unpredictable when she's confused, and I'm not going to be the person to do that to her. Goodnight."

He walked back to the log without saying anything more, or bothering to hear if Jai had a reply.

When he got back to the log, Cal was curled up inside. He sighed, and set down in the opening, trying not to look at her, but trying not to look away either.

He heard her shuffle, and she said tiredly, "Toby? What's up?"

"Huh? Nothing." He struggled with what to do next, but decided the best thing to do was act normally.

He crawled over to her, and nudged his neck beneath her head, tucking his paws beneath his head, and ignored the hammering in his heart.


	10. Chapter 10 Stitching or Splitting?

_Sorry that I've been out of action for a while guys, I've had a lot going on during my few days off work, but i did finally get around to finishing chapter 10, so here it is. As usual, the OC's are mine, but Buck, Rudy, and any other Bluesky characters are strictly theirs, not mine. Also, please leave comments/reviews because they help writers like myself have the motivation to keep writing. Cheers mates. XP_

* * *

Ivory had to press her face against Rufus' shoulder to keep herself from breathing too loudly and giving away everyone's hiding positions. She and Rufus had Collette and Tessa with them, and luckily their instincts had kicked in the moment Buck had indicated for them to duck into the brush on the sides of the path. Now they all waited, tense and scared, as three large carnivores tromped their way along the path. They were huge, at least four times the size of the usual raptors that were around these parts.  
Ivory knew that realistically, they couldn't have been very big compared to most dinosaurs. She'd heard that Rudy was the size of a mountain, though she figured it was an exaggeration. All the same, these were large and dangerous. It looked to be a gang of juveniles that had stuck together for survival until they outgrew each other.  
Ivory glanced up long enough to see Buck and Lucy on the other side of the path, with Ruby next to them, all poised for attack, and the other kits behind them huddled between some entangles roots.  
She looked to her side to see Tessa poised in a similar position as her older sister Ruby, tail twitching impatiently. Collette was tugging at her triplet impatiently, with fear-widened eyes. Ivory matched Collette's expression, and grasped Tessa's wrist, shaking her head sternly. Tessa, realised she was being watched, scowled at her fiercely.  
Rufus must have noticed the almost-argument happening beside him, and drew his attention away from the dinosaurs that were still passing lazily by. Spotting Tessa being difficult, he grabbed her by the scruff and then lifted his knee and put her beneath it, gently enough not to hurt her, but strongly enough to keep her in place. She was about to complain, loudly, when Rufus clamped one of his paws over her jaws, silencing her. Ivory felt bad at the treatment, but she knew Rufus was only doing it because if he didn't, they'd catch the attention of something that would devour them all in one bite.  
Eventually the predators moved off, and the family gave a collective sigh.  
Rufus let Tessa go, who immediately started to complain, but a few quiet, warning words from Buck silenced her, making her realise the danger she'd almost put them in.  
"Either you're slipping Buck, or they were travelling way too far south." Rufus said. "I've never seen anything like that this close to the village."

"I ain't slippin'." Buck said with a shake of his head, "You're righ', they travel farther North from here, along the flatter land."

"Why are they here then?" Ivory asked.

"It means they're avoiding something." Lucy said, and turned to her husband, "And Rudy's in the East these days."

Buck nodded. "Easy picking prey around Lava Falls, with all the new young trampin' around."

"You mean babies!?" Ivory said. "Rudy eats baby dino's?"

"Rudy eats baby anythin', and grown-up anythin'. Apart from trees. I tricked him into chompin' the top of a tree once, and he didn' appreciate it much."

"Three guesses as to why." Ruby said drolly with a raised eyebrow. Buck shrugged as if actually confused at the prospect of a blood-thirsty carnivore not taking to the taste of veggies, then looked to the West, the way they were travelling.

"Maybe they were goin' towards somethin'." Buck said thoughtfully. "Tracking prey, or maybe they've been pushed out of their territory and are lookin' for new turf."

"Does that mean not all the 'safe spots' along your trail aren't necessarily safe anymore?" Ruby asked, crossing her arms.

"Nowhere is strictly safe, but it means there might be more unpredictable activity from the dino's, but we can avoid them easily." Lucy explained. Ivory always felt better when Lucy explained something. She didn't lie, or sugar-coat it, but she certainly didn't prank or joke about it like Buck did. She just said the truth with a pinch of optimism. A pinch.

"The kits are tired," Rufus said, "And Tessa's mad _and_ tired, should we stop soon?"

Buck looked around them. "Not here, let's go a little further in." he indicated south, towards the village. He took them only a few dozen feet into the jungle until he found a thick clump of Peppermint trees. These had many branches close to the ground, and the bark was rough and easier to climb for the kits.

As Rufus and Ruby helped the kits up the tree, Buck, Lucy and Ivory stood watch, Ivory in the tops of the tree branches. Along their journey's, Buck and Lucy had both commented on her vision, claiming that it was perfect, and she could spot things many miles away if she concentrated hard enough.  
As she sat in the top branches of the tree, every now and then glancing at the skies to keep an eye out for Pterosaurs, and she saw unusual movement in a few trees near theirs. After watching for a little while, she could definitely see shapes moving along branches towards them, but couldn't quite make them out.  
Realising that it didn't matter what they were, they could still be a danger, Ivory pulled her head back into the canopy and started jumping from one branch to another, making her descent quickly. She couldn't yell to Buck from where she was, it might freak the kits out and alert the intruders that she knew they were there.  
She landed next to Lucy as Lucy did a circle of the tree trunk.

"Lucy, there's something coming towards us, from the village side." Ivory said hurriedly.

"Did you see what it was?" Lucy asked, immediately making her way in that direction.

"No, but they're small enough to be mammals."

"What's goin' on?" Buck asked, appearing beside them.

"We think there's villagers approaching." Lucy said seriously. Ivory had noticed how Lucy had stepped up to many of the roles that Buck would typically have, and Ivory suspected that Lucy wasn't fully convinced Buck was back in shape after being run with a sword many month ago.

"It's probably jus' some scouts." Buck said cheerfully.

"Or it could be spies, sent from my family. They might be tracking us and planning a kidnapping." Ivory said.

Buck laughed and nudged her shoulder, "Good one." He said.

She turned to him with a frown. "I'm serious. My father used to do it all the time, he had to kidnap a few of my aunts back from where they had hid after running away, and kidnap a few bastard children my uncles had spawned, so he could raise them as our family guards. He had a few assassins too."

"What the f…" Buck trailed off, then shook his head. "Alrighty then, looks like it migh' be a less friendly visit."

It ended up being a very friendly visit. The intruders turned out to be some of Buck's best pupils from the Scouts, and good friends of Toby. They dropped from the tree with wide smiles, an average sized dappled grey and black rat, and a Least Weasel, the smaller cousin _Mustela_ of normal Weasels.

"Buck! It's good to see you alive." Said the female rat, clasping arms with Buck as she approached.

"Good t' be alive Dent." Buck laughed.

"Dent?" Ruby asked, and snorted a laugh. "Weird name, even for a rat. How'd you earn that one?"

"Guess." The rat smiled, and Ivory could see a slight difference in one side of the rat's jaw, realising that there was literally a dent in the bone, even the skin and bone had grown along with it.

"And this here is Minnie, one of my best trackers!" Buck said proudly, clapping Minnie on the back fondly.

"Not for long, you should see the students Trudy's whipping into shape." Minnie said, who then spotted Ivory. "Oh, hey, you're Brendis' sister, right?"

"Uh, yes." Ivory said nervously.

"Whoo!" Dent whooped, "You gotta hear what's been going down at the village. Did you know your brother's down from the above ground?"

"Yeah, we did actually. What's happening?" Rufus asked before Ivory could.

"It's kind of a long story," Minnie said, "we were going to make camp soon, until I noticed your tracks a few k's back."

"Come on then, park with us for the nigh'!" Buck said, punching his student lightly in the arm. "Tell us what's been goin' on."

Ivory saw Rufus's ear slightly twitch while he watched Buck say this, and she suspected he was thinking the same thing as her; that Buck was worried. Buck was unpredictable in how he expressed his concern, but usually he tried to hide it from the younger kits.

At Buck's suggestion, they all climbed the selected tree together, and sat in the centre where most of the largest branches met. Where some of the family members couldn't fit, they laid or sat on the branches nearest to the centre, where Buck sat with Lucy and the two scouts.  
Ivory and Rufus sat on one of the thickest branches directly above and behind Lucy and Buck, looking down on the conversation.  
Ruby left and came back with some bundles of fruit for everyone, and handfuls of tomatoes, which were more common in this area than in their home section of the jungle. The kits ate first, but as usual, grew silent and fascinated by strangers. Only Bluey was calm enough, sitting on Buck's knee, to be anywhere near them. Otherwise, the other five kits clung to their older siblings and stayed on the higher branches.

Buck passed his past students some food, and all of them settled down to hear what the girls had to say.

"So, what's happening in the village that's so crazy?" Lucy asked. Ivory watched Buck, and he munched into his food. It was strange to see him be a listener instead of the story teller.

"Well…" Dent said, glancing at Minnie, and they grew a little more sombre than they had been a few short minutes ago. "We actually heard talk about a task force that Brendis put together of his best soldiers, and brought a tracker with them from above ground."

Lucy frowned, like the rest of the family, and asked, "What for?"

"Me." Ivory said, only just realising how far her brother was willing to go to get her back to the above ground world, to where she had never really belonged. Dent looked up at her and nodded.

"Apparently the apple didn't fall very far from the tree." Rufus grumbled next to Ivory, which she briefly laughed at, feeling that her joviality was slightly desperate.

"But the trackers would be useless down here, wouldn't they? If all they knew was snow and sleet." Ruby said on the branch above Ivory and Rufus, but Minnie shook her head regretfully.

"They might not have the snow that they're so used to, but they have dirt, mud, and plants, and more organic things to trap scents, instead of just snow." She explained. "The thing they would have to watch out for is the dino's, and the environment, and the higher possibility of rain washing your scents away. It's even."

"That's not the only thing." Dent said regretfully, "Trudy and Jeremy have been stirring some trouble too."

"Wha'?" Buck asked, speaking for the first time during the conversation. Trudy was like a sister to him, his first real apprentice and one of his best warriors. Unfortunately, she had a few anger management issues, but it was never something anyone couldn't handle.

"Yeah, they've been giving those Above ground soldiers a piece of their minds. At first, we just thought it was random drinking spots, they'd get rowdy and then an argument would start, then escalate really quick." Dent took a bite of her tomato, "Turns out Trudy and Jeremy were doing it with a little more intent, they told us themselves."

"That's not something we have to worry about too much." Lucy said calmly, "There's fights all the time in the village, and they have a right to have a go at the above-grounders."

"They may be above-grounders, but it's not like they were involved with the Tyrants or the Accused, they're just my families guard is all." Ivory said. She didn't feel any particular attachment to her family's guard or soldiers, but she didn't find it fair to just assign blame unreasonably.

Lucy's eyes hardened at her comment. "That's true Ivory, but they still came down here, once again, to cause trouble. What's even worse is that it's trouble directly involving you."

"We're safe out here aren't we? They tried finding us last time in the wilderness, I doubt they could find us this time." Ivory said.  
Out the corner of her eye, she saw Rufus and Buck exchange a glance, but pretended not to notice.

"Fine, we'll forget all that." Ruby interrupted from above them. "You see any dinos lately?"

Minnie frowned, "That's not very specific, we see them all the time." She raised an eyebrow and looked to Buck, obviously hoping for some clarification.

"We mean 'ave you seen 'em doing anythin' unusual." He answered, leaning forward.  
Minnie and Dent looked at each other with wide eyes. Dent matched Bucks posture, leaning forward.

"We have actually, a _huge_ pack of raptors came weirdly close to the village the other week, but they kept heading West, they didn't even try to attack the village."

"How huge?" Rufus asked.

"50 strong at least."

The family gasped.

"50 strong! That's insane!" Buck said.

"It's impossible." Rufus growled. "Raptors would tear each other apart in those numbers."

"They seemed to have a few leaders, bigger and older ones that were driving them, and ending squabbles." Minnie said.

Buck's eye widened, "Was there a really big one, with a scar down 'is side, real nasty temper?"

Dent nodded immediately, "Yeah, he was definitely one of the largest. You know him?"

"Taino." Buck whispered. "He should be East this time o' year, like Rudy."

Ivory, who'd been watching the scene with growing curiosity and concern, felt her tail start to curl around her, but Rufus' body was in the way. Once upon a time her tail might have flinched away, but she was too comfortable with him now, and apparently, he was just as comfortable as her, because her put a reassuring paw on her shoulder.

"So, what's happening?!" Ruby growled accusingly.

"This isn't good." Lucy said quietly, looking to her husband.

"Even Wraith didn' cause this much trouble." Buck grumbled. He rubbed his face, and then fixed his gaze on the ground on front of him.

"Honey?" Lucy asked her husband calmly.  
It took a few quiet moments, but he finally replied.

"Okay, Ivory, Rufus, you 'ave t' go back home."

"What!?" Rufus yelled. "No way, you can't just dump us!"

"You two 'ave to take the kits and ge' back home t' safety, no arguing!" Buck yelled back. Bluey looked up in fright, and scrambled up a nearby branch to his other siblings.

"I'm telling you it's not happening." Rufus' ears flattened against his head.

"An' I'm telling you it is!"

"What exactly do you think you're going to do? Interrogate a couple of dinosaurs?"

"We'll follow their tracks backwards, see where they came from an' find ou' why they've been comin' this way."

"And why can't we come?" Rufus crossed his arms stubbornly.

"The kits will slow us down, an' you need to ge' Ivory somewhere safe. The easiest place to defend is either back home, Devil's mountain or Toby's secret caverns."

"The safest place would be with you and Lucy."

"Not anymore!"

Rufus' eyes narrowed, while everyone else's widened.

Buck growled deep in his throat. "Not anymore." He said, a lot quieter. His paws clenched into rough, scarred fists. "You know it Ruf, I'm no' gonna be able to protect ya from 'em. Dinosaurs I can figh', bu' I'll be useless against other mammals. You're the only one tha' can guard her now."

"I can guard myself too you know." Ivory said, growing more frustrated with the amount of testosterone being flung around the tree.

"I need you t' guard the kits, I need him to guard you. If anythin' you say abou' your brother is true, he'll threaten the kits t' get leverage on you."

Ivory blinked at the new realisation. "You're right. He'll...do anything." She deflated, feeling something dull and yet familiar settle into her. "I..I have to get away from you guys."

"What? No!" Rufus said, whirling to face her. "They're not going to just scare you away from us."

"Ruf is righ' Ivory, there's no need for that." Buck said.

"My brother is going to hurt whoever he can to drag me back above ground, what's wrong with just going with him?"

"You would have given up! You're running away." Rufus said, and Ivory turned her face away.

"I'm just facing reality Rufus, you have to as well."

"Calm down, all of you." Lucy said swiftly, standing up. She looked to Ivory. "You're not turning yourself in. Rufus and you can take the kits to the cave systems, while Ruby comes with us to backtrack the dino's. You two," She turned to Dent and Minnie, "You're going to cover Ivory and Rufus' tracks all the way until they're safe, and make sure Brendis' family guard are thrown off."

"Yes Ma'am!" Dent and Minnie saluted.

"You can give them orders?" Ruby asked, clearly impressed.

Buck rubbed his head and turned his head to look at Ruby, grumbling, "As my mate an' the head healer of the village, she has every right t' give 'em orders, and take over authority of council members even, if she sees fit."

"Seriously?" She asked.

"That's incredible." Ivory said quietly. "What about Trudy and Jeremy, how much influence do they have?"

"Not much without Buck in the village. They're directly under him, while I have independent power, being the head healer." Lucy said, looking slightly smug.

"Why is that so in the first place?" Rufus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because it's been whole-heartedly agreed that healing should be prioritized to harming, by everyone." Lucy answered. "As a result, healers can take control of a battle situation, including calling halt's and offers of peace as well as retreat, but not surrenders."

Rufus made a sound of approval.

"Lucy," Ivory said quietly, lifting her head which had hung in frustration, "Please, just let me go to my brother and calm everything down, let me settle this-,"

"No, going to him will settle nothing, because Ruby and Rufus would rush in and rescue you, killing anyone who got in their way." Lucy said, lifting her head to where Ruby sat.

Ruby scowled, "Damn Lucy, someone would think you're a mind reader."

"Hm, so that's why you didn't object to Ivory turning herself in." Dent said.  
All eyes turned to Ivory then, and her teeth clenched, but eventually she relaxed, knowing there was no way she could get away from this. If she tried running away, they would track her. If she tried objecting, they would just keep fighting her. She finally knew what having a family was like, and it was at the worst time.

"Fine. But if they manage to find us, I'm going with them so that no one gets hurt, got it!"  
Everyone nodded but Rufus.

"Wait a second," Minnie said quietly, and everyone turned to her. She put a knuckle on her chin in thought, her brow furrowed in concentration. "What if we could do something to stop them from going after you in the first place."

"You mean getting rid of all of Brendis' trackers?" Rufus asked.

"No, you psychopath, something negotiable." She looked at Ivory. "Tell me, are you eighteen?"

Ivory frowned at the question, but nodded. "Yeah, I turned eighteen a few days after Ruby and Rufus."

"Hey, you didn't tell us that!" Ruby snapped.

"Didn't really matter, you guys had a collective party, so I just thought it could be mine as well without telling anyone." Ivory said with a shrug.

"Hm," Minnie thought more, and everyone settled down around her.

"What are you thinking?" Dent asked her.

"Well, see, the reason the council haven't really been able to do anything is because technically, the matter _is_ that of the Above-grounders. You weren't born here Ivory, and don't have any true blood family here, so technically your brother has at least the right to track you down as head of the family, as long as he's convinced them he's not going to kidnap you. Even if they don't strictly believe him, they can't do anything."

"So, what's your point?" Ruby said, sounding bored.

"Well, I know you've already been faced with this, but what if you did something that gave you a family down here, not just metaphorically."

Ivory's eyes widened. "You mean get married!"

"Only temporarily, as an illusion, and then your brother's role here ends and he has to go back home without you, and then you just 'divorce,'."  
Ivory thought back to facing an arranged marriage, to Cabe, who at the time was known as one of the youngest openly gay mammals of the village by most of its inhabitants. She remembered escaping into the wild with the Wilde family and him.

His voice rang in her head lightly, from all those months ago, _"you know Ivory, if this had all gone the other way, I'd just like to say I wouldn't hate being married to you."_

"I think that'll do just the trick." Ivory said. The more she thought about it, the more of what Minnie has said made sense. "Yeah. Well, it looks like Cabe and I are getting married after all."  
"Cabe!?" Everyone yelled.

"Who exactly did you have in mind!?" Ivory snapped at them.  
Everyone paused, and she felt their eyes wish to flick to Rufus.  
 _  
No. That kind of attention, that kind of pressure, would only scare him away from me._

"We were thinking my brother of course!" Ruby snapped back, and Ivory turned to her with wide eyes.  
 _  
I should have known Ruby would be honest, no matter how brutal it was going to be._  
"Why not?" Rufus said calmly, and even Buck's jaw dropped in surprise. Rufus looked at them all seriously. "Brendis won't buy it if she marries Cabe, everyone knows he's just about as gay as a rainbow unicorn. Brendis was the one I took Ivory from, he'll be more convinced if it's us."

Everyone was silent, before Dent deadpanned, "That's gotta be the lousiest proposal in history."


	11. Chapter 11 Rising Winds

_Hiya guys! Sorry that I've been out of action for so long, just been all over the place really. This chapter has some action as well as some nice fluff bits, but also an interesting insight into how Cal, Jai, Toby and Alma actually work as a team (although Alma barely does any work, naturally). Hope you guys enjoy. I'm not sure when I'll get the next one out, but hopefully it'll be soon._  
 _Rights of the world to Bluesky, but the characters are all mine, so please don't steal them._  
 _Please leave reviews and comments, I love them so much!_

* * *

After days of planning, gathering, and stitching up packs of leather for the trip, the morning of Cal, Jai, Toby and Alma's departure arrived.  
Cal woke up slowly for the first time in a long time. She was designed and raised to grab hold of her consciousness as soon as it rose, and it was rare for her to have a lousy time getting up from bed.

Her cheek was pressed against a familiarly soft coat, and she pushed further into it, trying to convince herself that she couldn't hear the noises of morning birds outside the temporary den. Her pillow started to shift, so she wrapped her arm over it with a light growl, keeping it in place.  
 _  
Not yet, I'm too comfy._

"Cal, we have to get up."  
She bared her teeth without opening her eyes.  
Toby sighed, but didn't move any further. She pushed her face into the space between his neck and the ground, trying to stop the outside light from coming through her eyelids.

"What would your dad say, seeing you sleep in like this?"

"Dad's not here, so I can get a little peace for once." Cal grumbled back.

"This is hardly the time for peace."

"Just five more minutes."

She could practically hear Toby's eyes roll, and felt him rest his arm on her side comfortably. His thumb brushed idly along her fur, obviously moving on instinct rather than conscience. But it still made her sigh inside, and grip at his chest softly.

"Toby," She asked quietly. "What exactly is between us?"

He stiffened immediately, the movement of his thumb stopping. "I don't know, why?"

She shrugged lightly. "It's a bad time to ask, isn't it?"

"Well, better late than never, I suppose, but…"

"Better later than right now?"

"…yeah."

Calamity nodded, and tried not to feel disappointed about it. Toby kept his word and let her snuggle for another five minutes, but eventually had to shake her back into a wakeful state.

* * *

Cal stretched next to the river, while Toby washed his face in the water.

"Why do you do that anyway?" She asked him, watching him scrub water out of his short face fur. "There's no one else to impress but me."

He smiled, and continued splashing water into his face. "It makes me feel more awake, and fresh. It helps dull my scent too." He shook his head, letting the droplets fly from his fur. "It's been said that rats stink."

"Not any more than a _Mustela,_ that's for sure. You know that you're just going to get dirty again."

"Just because I'm going to get dirty doesn't mean I shouldn't wash what I can now."

She smiled. _Of course._

She heard something move in the jungle behind them, and turned while gripping her spear.

"Calm down sis, it's just us." Jai said calmly, pushing some of the vegetation out the way.

It had been days since they'd found him, but Cal still wasn't used to the sight of the leathery half of his body. It looked dry in the morning light, like the ground of where a lake had once been, now exposed to the sun.

Alma was trailing behind him, and grumbling angrily. It was the first time Cal had seen her in a mood that wasn't cheery.

"What's up with Alma?" Toby asked before Cal could.

"She's mad that I had to leave the stones behind, even the large star I carved her." Jai said with a sigh. "We just don't need the extra baggage. I tried telling her we'll see the real stars soon, but she doesn't believe me."

Alma poked at the ground with a stick, face still wound in an annoyed expression. "River boy is being unfair."

"River boy is being everything but unfair!" Jai snapped. "Urgh, I swear Cal, it's like dealing with a child."

"You weren't ever really good with kids." Cal laughed.

Jai crossed his arms. "Neither were you, I don't know how Mum and Dad can be so good with them and us so bad."

Toby chuckled to himself. "You guys weren't treated like kids, that's why."

The siblings turned to look at him.

"What do you mean? Dad treated us like kids right up until we left." Cal grumbled.

"No, he treated you like students. Hey Alma," the female Marten looked up, "We'll go see some stars, hey?"

Her face lit up, and she nodded vigorously.  
Jai's jaw dropped. "Why did she listen to you?"

"Because I'm not you."

* * *

With nothing left to do, Cal, Jai, Toby and Alma set off into the jungle, heading further North.

"I'm warning you guys, the Pterosaurs we're heading for are huge." Jai said.

"That's what we're hoping for. We've seen dinosaurs over here that I've never seen at home before." Cal said. She'd been so caught up with helping plan the trip that they hadn't had time to talk about this side of the mountains.

"Yeah, there is some familiar ones too, but most of them seem to be slightly different, in size or colour or build. Come on, I'll show you some." Jai said.

Jai ran off, still heading North, and Cal followed without hesitating. "Take care of Alma!" She yelled at Toby, and didn't bother to look back at his annoyance.

The land started sloping downwards, and Jai started extending his stride, turning his steps into bounds, and eventually started running on all fours down the slope. Cal threw her spear over her shoulder into its sheath, and matched his speed on all fours. It didn't take much weaving through the trees and kicking off roots for her to feel like a kid again, versing her brother in a race down the hills to the North West of their home. Back there, it was harsher shrub with barbs and dry leaves, but it made it more of a challenge. Now, back in the softness of a jungle, she could go full throttle and not worry about getting barbs in her paws.

She ran beside her brother, and bumped him with her shoulder with a laugh. He laughed mischievously and moved to bump her back rougher with his superior strength. She jumped, rising above his attack and landing on his shoulder, sending him sprawling in the leaf litter and dirt while she kept running.

"Dammit Cal!" he yelled behind her, and she stuck her tongue out at him as she kept running.

She slowed when the ground started to even out, and stopped by a collection of mossy rocks.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing Cal." Jai's voice came from behind the rock's, and when Cal looked up, she jumped back with a growl, as she saw Jai perched on the top, prepared to pounce. "I'm your brother, remember?"

"You've gotten better." She responded, remembering when she had been able to trick him again and again.

"And yet you're both still terrible."

The siblings turned to see Toby and Alma at the bottom of the slope, Toby looking amused, while Alma giggled behind him cheekily.

"River boy's running slow today." She whispered to Toby, who only snorted.

"Fine, rat scout," Cal said, dusting herself off with dignity.

"That's _Captain_ Rat Scout." Toby pointed out.

"Never thought you were the gloating type Toby." Jai said with a raised eyebrow as he climbed down the rocks.

"Only pointing out the truth is all, besides, it was your dad who assigned me to it." Toby grumbled.

"Let's keep going, there's no point in hanging around here." Cal butted in.

After they reached the very bottom of the ridge, they had to climb up another, and then down the other side of that one. It was over one more hill before they finally reached the waterfalls, huge cascades of water crashing into a large lake.

"Whoa, that river is huge!" Toby said from the top of a tree, looking down on it.

"Believe it or not, that's the start of the Silver." Jai said, from the branch below him, gripping Alma by the scruff to stop her from falling out of the tree. "At least one starting point to it."

"It's weird that the Pterosaurs live here, the River's power would depend on the season." Cal observed quietly.

Jai laughed. "They don't live in the sides of the waterfall."

"Then where?" Toby asked. Jai pointed further up, above the waterfall, almost all the way to the Ice sky.

"Whoa, I thought this area was a little darker than usual…" Toby trailed off, staring at the structures above them.

"That's incredible!" Cal exclaimed, standing up on her branch taller, to get a better look. Toby put and arm around her hips to keep her steady, and her heart skipped a beat, but her heart rate grew faster the longer she stared upwards.

Huge towers of rock rose towards the Above-ground world, jutting like the teeth of a bottom jaw. In the sides of the rock were hundreds of holes and landings, and just over the sound of the waterfall, could be heard the sound of an entire colony of Pterosaurs.

"Jai, have you ever drawn this!?" Cal asked.

"Not yet, but it's on my list." Jai said.

"Just imagine what we could do up there!" Cal was almost jumping with her growing excitement, thinking about how she could jump from the very peaks, and grab onto the nearest Pterodactyl and soar through the clouds themselves.

Toby gripped her fur tighter. "Hold on, that's not what we're here for."

"He's right, we can try tricks on them when we get back, right now we just need one." Jai said.

"One? Wouldn't we need two for four of us?" Toby asked him, while Cal still daydreamed.

"Not with these. Like I said, they're huge."

Toby's shoulders fell. "So…how exactly do we catch one?"

* * *

"Hold it steady, goddammit Cal!" Jai swore, gripping the vine in his paws harder. His arms and legs were already aching, with the added weight of Alma on his back.  
His legs were braced on a small ledge above one of the Pterodactyl's nest entrance, with Cal next to him holding the other line.

"Boss me around one more time Jai, and I swear I'm going to-,"

"Shut up both of you!" Toby snapped. He finished the last of the knots, and gave a sigh of relief. "Alright, it's done, but don't let go."

"No kidding." Cal grunted, fighting the urge to shift her grip.

Toby climbed back up to them, and looked down. "This better be worth it."

"This was the largest damn one we could find, it's not time to be picky." Cal snapped.

"I was just saying that this better work." Toby said.

"Only one way to find out." Jai said, the indicated downwards with his head. Toby sighed, then jumped down onto the landing, facing the nest.

Inside, it was dark, but it didn't take long for two large, shining eyes to glare from the gloom. Toby tried not to think about the thousand-foot drop behind him, and gripped his leather-wrapped paws.

The eyes got bigger as the Pterodactyl approached, a deep hissing sound beginning in the base of its throat.

"Is it trying to eat you yet?" Cal asked from above.

"No." Toby growled.

"Make yourself look tastier." She said with a laugh.

"Wouldn't you be jealous?" Toby said bitterly back.

Cal winked at him. "Maybe."

"You guys are gross." Jai grumbled next to his sister.

The Pterodactyl launched forward with a shriek, and Toby jumped just as it's beak scraped the air where he'd been.

"Now!"

Jai and Cal let the lines go, and the rocks hanging below them dropped, and the net harness that was suspended above the nest fell with a snap. The vines crashed into the Pterodactyl, and pinned it to the landing. It gave out a shriek, and tried flapping it's wings to get away, but they were trapped at its sides by the lines.

"Move, quick!" Toby said, grabbing his line, and running under the Pterodactyl's belly, attaching it to its other side.  
Cal and Jai jumped down. Jai ran to the Pterodactyl's head and grabbed the bottom and top halves of its beak, wrenching the mouth open. It squawked in protest, and tried whipping its head away, but Jai was stronger. Cal fed the harness over its beak, and slid it up until it rested just below its eyes.

"Beak Secure." She said, then she and Jai grabbed the reins leading from the beak, and held the head in place, while Toby jumped over its back and around its legs, making the least harmful saddle that any of them had ever made.

"It's done! Get on."

Cal and Jai climbed up onto the Pterodactyls shoulders until they were just above its shoulder-blades. Jai let Alma clamber off his back, as Toby met them on the dino's spine.

"Ready?" Jai asked them.

"Ready to rock and roll." Cal said with a grin, as she held up her spear, and Jai held up one of his Arrows. They swiped down at the same time, cutting the vines that were wrapped around the rocks and letting them fall. The Pterodactyl, realising that it was no longer being held down, tried throwing its head back violently, but Jai and Cal held the Reins strongly, resisting it. After it flapped and flailed for a while, it came to terms with what it could or couldn't move. It rested for a moment, catching its breath, before Cal whipped the reigns. With a hissing roar, the Pterodactyl fully extended its wings, almost 12 metres across, and launched into the air.

"Toby! Take my reigns, quick!" Jai yelled, and Toby clambered from where he'd strapped Alma to the dino's back, and grabbed onto Jai's line.

"What's wrong?" Toby asked him, as Jai pulled his bow from his back sheath.

"I think it's the mate." Jai growled, and nocked a blunt-head arrow. Toby glanced over his shoulder, and saw that Jai was right. Another Pterodactyl was following close behind them, with murder in its eyes. The one they were riding made a warble, and the following one responded, then it gave a piercing shriek, which drew out in the daylight.

"Crap!" Jai swore, watching as more Pterosaurs turned their attention to the one they were riding. "Keep heading North, we need to get to that column!" He pointed to a huge column of rock that stretched from the Ice sky, almost all the way to the ground. "That's where the tunnel is."  
He shot his first arrow, knocking the mate in the eye. It gave a pained screech, and pulled back, but more still followed them.

Toby pulled his reigns strongly, making the Pterosaur turn towards their goal. He looked over his shoulder, and ducked just in time, as a slightly smaller Pterosaur zoomed to grab him, and just missed him.

"Cal, help Jai, I got this." Toby said. Cal nodded, and carefully gave him her side of the reigns. Once she made sure Toby had a firm grip on them, and maintained control of the head, she jumped back to help her brother, drawing her spear.  
The wind whipped at their fur and tails as they faced the onslaught. Jai's aim held true as it always had, and every time a Pterodactyl got close enough, Calamity jabbed at it with the butt of her spear or whacked it with the pole, trying her hardest to keep the spear tip from them, but occasionally a particularly violent one needed more persuasion.

"We're almost there!" Toby yelled to them, glancing back every few moments to check on Cal, Jai and Alma.

"Head straight for the opening, but we'll have to jump." Jai said back, nocking another arrow.

"Jai, you're running out." Cal said, worriedly glancing at her brothers dwindling stock of arrows. She knew his sharp arrow tips were safely stowed in the leather wrap he had tied securely to Alma, but he wasn't able to get to them in the air, and would hesitate to use them anyway.

Toby spotted the opening, and angled the Pterodactyl towards it. "Cal, you'll have to grab Alma."

"Got her!"

Toby looked over his shoulder again. Cal was hunkered down, her spear sheathed and her right arm clasped around Alma, who was gazing around in wonder, occasionally whooping in excitement and laughing insanely. Cal rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Okay, we're in range." Toby said, gauging the distance to the Column.

Jai shot his final blunt arrow at the last pursuing dino, then took up a large arrow with a hooked end, and a strong line attached.

"You botch this shot, and we're dead." Cal growled at him.

"I'd like to see you make a shot like this." Jai snapped, then pulled the string back to the corner of his mouth, keeping his eyes fixed on a spot, despite the wind battering at his body. He shot, and they all watched the line soar through the air. Jai's jaw clenched in anticipation, Cal bit her lip with her sharp canines, Toby took a deep breath, and Alma wrapped her arms around Cal's shoulders.  
The line hit the rock, slid down, and then hooked onto the bottom of the hollow.

"Grab it!"

Three sets of paws grabbed onto the line, as Toby let go of the reigns.  
For a few moments, their stomachs flipped as they free fell. Then the line snagged with their weight, and they swung in a downwards arch, clenching their jaws as one, all trained to restrain any fear they had of falling. The line swung back and forth for a little while, then slowed.  
Cal let out a sigh of relief. "Good one bro."

"Like I said, I'd like to see you make that shot." Jai said with a smile.

"Can we please move up?" Toby said nervously, noticing how exposed they were, and how they still weren't quite safe. Because of the shape of the column, they still had to climb before they reached solid rock. "We're practically dangling bait for these bastards."

"Aye, aye Captain." Cal laughed, and started climbing her way up the line, Toby following shakily. "Honestly, one of you guys should be carrying Alma, you're way stronger than me."

They finally made it to the rock, and used it to assist in the climbing, until they finally hauled themselves over the edge of the hollow, and fell into the dip with huge sighs of relief. Cal's muscles shuddered as Alma climbed off of her, and she growled in pain.

Toby crawled over to her, nudging her with his head. "You okay?"

Still panting, she dropped her head to his chest and nodded. "Ruby and Rufus could have done that way easier."

Toby closed his eyes with a smile and placed his chin on her head, "Yeah, that's true."

"Oi," she punched him in the gut, but he resisted with a laugh. Cal looked up at Jai, who was stopping Alma from leaning too far out the opening. "So, brother, what's our next move. Straight up?"

"We'll only go half way. If we go all the way and night falls above ground, we'll be freezing before we even get a good look at the place."

Cal made a face. "I'm not looking forward to being cold again."

"None of us are, but it can't be helped." Jai said with a sigh. "Let's keep going. Alma can climb up herself as long as we guide her, so you're in the clear Cal."

"Like I was going to carry her anyway." Cal grumbled.

The inside of the column was strangely like a bird's bone, hollowed with pockets of air and branches of rock curving their way in and out of the walls, enough to keep it stable and in one piece, but also with enough room with a straight shot to the surface. They kept Alma up front, with Jai directly behind her to guide her, and Toby and Cal following, trying to stay level as often as possible.

"We'll be even better adventurers than Buck after all this." Toby said with a smile, as he slipped among the air pockets like he had been doing it his whole life.

"That's if we survive the whole ordeal." Jai said darkly.

"Take heart and have faith, dear brother!" Cal laughed. "Come on, like we haven't survived worse."

Jai couldn't help but nod his agreement.

* * *

The travel became easier as the top started to widen, and they didn't lose any light as there was similar hollows all the way up like the one they had come in, letting the light from outside filter in, refracting all through the column.

Like Jai said, he stopped them about half-way up, as the light outside was getting dimmer and dimmer. "We better get some rest, let's bunk up."  
Wheezing, Cal nodded. "Good plan."

Toby laughed kindly behind her, pushing her the rest of the way to a sturdy ledge, a few feet across. On all fours, she crawled to the wall and removed her spears sheath, then curled up on the spot. "It's too bad we don't have any food."

"We'll have to wait until we get up there to get some food." Jai said, then yawned. Alma matched his yawn, and rubbed her eyes like a child.  
Toby looked out the nearest hollow exit, glancing around for danger, but nothing came this close to the Ice sky, even the plants didn't grow at the height they were at. When Toby looked up, it didn't seem far at all to the top.

"I don't want to be up there for very long…" he said quietly, and drew himself back inside.

"Neither." Cal said with a yawn, rubbing her aching arms slowly. "I miss Mum and Dad, I want to go home as soon as possible."

"I do too." Jai said, as he picked his own spot to curl up.

Cal looked over at him, slightly surprised. "Really? You'll come back home?"

Jai smiled a little. "Yeah. I shouldn't have run away like I did. Mum and Dad deserve an apology."

"And then we'll just leave again, off on another adventure." Toby said as he approached Cal.

Cal laughed quietly. "That's a promise."

Toby went to all fours and shuffled to the space next to Cal, keeping her close to the wall and away from the edge of their temporary camp.

"River boy?" Alma asked quietly, already half asleep.

"Yeah Alma?"

"Stars soon?"

Jai rubbed her head gently as her eyelids lowered. "Yep, stars soon. You'll get to see the stars very soon."

She hummed appreciatively, then fell asleep quietly.

Cal smiled as she herself stated to drift off, and snuggled into Toby's side, who put an arm over her side and rubbed the aches out of her shoulders.  
She wasn't sure if she was dreaming, but she felt a light kiss on her cheek.


	12. Chapter 12 Darling Dawn

_Yo Yo! Oh my damn I missed you guys so much, and I'm sorry I've taken so long to get the next chapter up, been working six days a week and actually having some real bad mental problems, but I've had a few days off because school holidays means juniors can take some of my shifts, yay, so I've had enough of a break to get some writing and gaming in, so here it is. This one is short and sweet, because the next one i'm thinking is probably going to be horrendously long, so enjoy the calm while it's here lol._

* * *

The stream flowed calmly before them, the water appearing dark in the gloom of the day. It must have been a cloudy day in the above ground world, because it had been grey all morning. Ivory shifted her weight next to her 'husband,' watching the water in contemplation.

"You're thinking hard." Rufus said quietly. She glanced at him with a smile, but his eyes weren't even open.

"How did you know?"

"You always cross your legs when you're thinking."

She hastily uncrossed her legs and 'hmphed' to prove a point.

"You're still worried." He said sadly, opening his eyes now and looking at her.

"I am. I just… never realised this was going to blow out of proportion." She sighed.

"It hasn't." he said with a shrug.

"But it has! We had to get married so I couldn't be kidnapped by my power-psycho brother." She sat back against his chest. "To break tradition, I had to follow tradition. Marrying young and expecting kids and cleaning a den…I wanted those things later in life, when I…knew who I was."

Rufus sat back and frowned, thinking of what to say. "I don't know what you mean. I'm not going to make you do those things."

"I know, but that's not what I'm saying. I was a captive all my life in my own home. I didn't know what I liked or who I was. It was just…lonely and blank. There was nothing I remember apart from endless trips to other female homes, listening to them talk about nothing and saying what a beautiful bride I was going to be. Now I'm here…"

"You like kids."

"Huh?"

Rufus smiled. "You like kids. Maybe you could be their young teacher. Trudy and Jeremy and Adrian don't take them on until they're older, but sometimes parents need a break."

"I like baby dino's too." She said with a smile. "Anything that's small and cute and cuddly."

"So, anything but me."

"You're cuddly _sometimes._ And if you curl up really tight, you're kind of small." She grinned and gripped his cheeks. "And you have cute cheeks. There. Small, cute, cuddly."

Rufus' smile turned from a grin, to a small, wondering one, and he stared at her for a little while.

"Rufus? What is it?" she asked.

He blinked calmly, then leaned gently forward, and Ivory's heart skipped a dozen beats as she realised he was about to ki-

"Oi lovebirds!"

Rufus sighed and raised an eyebrow, turning to look at his approaching sister, and Ivory's heart dropped like a stone from too many emotions to name.

"What is it Ruby?" Rufus said dully, draping his arm around Ivory's shoulders naturally, and she hid her smile. Ruby winked at her slyly, then answered her brother,

"Someone here wants to talk to you two." She stepped aside and revealed Brendis.

Rufus and Ivory stood immediately, grabbing each-other's paws.

"What do you want?" Rufus asked.

"To talk to my sister, privately." Brendis answered lazily, unimpressed.

"I won't." Ivory said sternly, moving closer to Rufus.

He looked between them. "So, it's true, you really did pretend, just to run away from your family."

"The marriage is legitimate, just ask Oma." Rufus said.

"You think a carving into some rock proves you two to be married?" Brendis said with a sigh.

"Things are different down here Brendis," Ivory said, determined not to let her voice shake. "That's all it takes to make a couple married down here. A few witnesses and a sharp stone."

"Not back home it isn't."

"This is my home now." Ivory snapped. "There's nothing you can do to change that. I renounce my family, including you."

Now, Brendis' eyes grew dark. "Why are you acting so _selfish!?_ Without bringing you home, our uncles and cousins will take over our family-,"

"The one she just renounced." Ruby deadpanned.

"And destroy everything our father made. You think you can live down here with these savages, and be happy? What kind of life will you lead? One of murder and muck like the rest of these flea-ridden excuses for Mustela?"

"No, one of my own choosing among friends. Go away Brendis, you have nothing left here." Ivory said, turning her face away.

"Come on, we'll head you back to the Above-ground world." Ruby said unenthusiastically. Ivory heard them turning away, but then Ruby said calmly, "Hang on a minute, someone's coming."

Ivory looked up, past her dark-mood brother, and started hearing it too, someone making their way through the thin, almost secret path that Ivory and Rufus used to get to their secret spot along the Stream.

A familiar ferret appeared in the brush, a friend of Toby's, and approached them.

"An Above-grounder just arrived at the village, travelled here on his own until our scouts picked him up on the edge of the border."

"Is he alright?" Ivory asked. Very few could make it through the jungle alone that weren't part of Buck's family, let alone an above-grounder.

"He's fine, a little shaken and exhausted, but he'll be okay soon. He's a messenger from above, said his name was Wave."

Ruby frowned. "Weird name."

"His birth name is Kyvor, but he's the fastest messenger in our region, and the name 'Soundwave' or 'wave', caught on." Brendis said.

"Oh, Kyvor! He was always so funny and nice." Ivory said lightly.

"Yeah, he's pretty laid back as far as I can tell, anyway, he's looking for you Brendis."

"That's 'sir' to you." Brendis snapped.

The ferret raised an eyebrow. "Or, you know, it's not."

Rufus and Ruby laughed and Ivory smiled.

"Come on, we'll all go, I want to see Kyvor again." Ivory said, and they nodded and all headed back to the village.

* * *

Brendis was still obviously uncomfortable in the main part of the village during daylight hours, when a lot of the villagers were out and about, including the younger teenagers, who held a particular grudge against him. Presumably because they all loved Ivory, and didn't want her leaving with him back to the Above-ground world.

He kept his head high, but didn't look at any of them directly, making Rufus smirk.

They arrived at the Healing Shack, where Lucy was laughing with a stranger in one of the low-maintenance-patient areas.

"Hey guys," Lucy said cheerfully. They all chorused a greeting back, then turned to the stranger.

He was a small, thin Stoat, with an orange-red coat and big, happy eyes. But he had a blanket around his shoulders and one of Lucy's nicer-tasting medicines in a wooden cup. When he recognized Ivory, he stood up with a smile.

"Ivory! Gimme a hug."

She smiled and complied, then allowed him to admire her, holding her at arm's length. He was small for a stoat but just about the size of a weasel, shorter than the towering Rufus though.

"Wow! Look at you! No head scarf, and I heard you chose your own husband, he's a real handsome hunk isn't he?" he punched Rufus gently in the chest, then turned back to Ivory. "And you moved down here, good for you! Weather's lovely. Not so much the scaly locals though." He said cheerfully.

"You didn't get hurt did you?" She asked, while he sat down again.

"Nah, too fast for the buggers. It was finding food that was the trouble. I only ate stuff I knew wasn't poisonous and they were few and far between-,"

Brendis cleared his throat, and it was as if Wave only just noticed the weasel.

"Oh, Brendis, just the guy I was looking for. You're looking worn out, man, you need to get a massage or something."

"Why are you here, Wave?" Brendis asked as formerly as he could to a guy called 'wave.'

"Right, yeah, 'course. I was sent down by the new Lord, Bly."

Everyone blinked in surprise.

"Is Coal…dead?" Ruby asked.

"Nah, stepped down. Something about the trip down here changed somethin' in him, he didn't want anything to do with the village anymore, he's gone on some pilgrimage thing. Now Bly is in charge, it's awesome. Got a spine like and oak tree and she can put you off your nerve. Brilliant with a sword too. She sent me down to fetch you back, Brendis, saying we don't have any business down here, and your family needs you."

"What about my sister?" Brendis said darkly.

Wave shrugged. "She's her own person, and married now to an under-grounder. You can't force her to do anything, she's not a slave."

"She's an Above-ground female." Brendis said tersely. "She's accountable to the laws of our family-,"

"Which have been revoked, now that she's married, and Bly is changing all those laws now anyway. She managed to weasel her way out of arranged marriage until she was old enough to be called 'too old for young love'." He laughed at his own play on words. "Now she's scrapping them, sick of the 'pathetic way of thinking'." He shrugged. "Can't bring her back man, if she wants to stay here."

Ivory cheered and Rufus picked her up and spun her like she was a child.

"No more trouble from them." He said with an uncontrollable grin on his face.

"I like this Bly." Ruby said with an approving nod.

"So, she wants me back." Brendis said through clenched teeth, staring disapprovingly out the corner of his eye at his sister.

"Yes, your family is exposed and vulnerable to other families that want to take advantage of them. Bly doesn't want the drama so she's ordering you back." Wave said.

Brendis sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I can't ignore an order. We'll leave in the morning…without my sister."

Ivory did a little dance on the spot while Rufus held her paw, watching with a smile.

Just then movement came from the entrance, and they all turned to see Buck walking in with a leaf-bag over his shoulder.

"Got ya the new stock, honey. Oh, hey, what's happenin' here?" He said when he spotted the small crowd.

"We're partying without you." Rufus said.

"Now that's jus' plain rude." Buck gave Lucy a kiss on the cheek and she took the bag from him, giving him a thank-you kiss on the cheek back, and she went to put it away.

"Wow, Buckminster! Never thought I'd actually meet you." Wave said, staring like a kid at the hero, eyeing the countless scars and lingering on the eye-patch.

Buck shook paws with him and said, "Another Above-grounder, hope the trip wasn' a bore."

"Hardly, just delivering a message."

"The best kind of message." Ruby said, sitting on a nearby bed.

"How so?" Buck asked.

"Brendis here can't take our little snowflake back up without serious consequences by some new leader, Bly." Ruby answered.

"Hmm, I was worried Coal migh' step down after the whole 'war' thing." Buck said.

"Don't worry, Bly is almost as much of a legend as you. Fought whole packs of wolves off with her right-hand male, Boomer. They're a dream team to be running the joint." Wave said enthusiastically.

"Good t' hear it'll be in safe paws." Buck said. He turned to Ruby, Rufus and Ivory. "Now, why don' you troublemakers take the kits an' ge' a big dinner goin', while I help the Above-grounders prepare to depart."

"On it Buck." Rufus said, and paw-in-paw with Ivory and Ruby trailing behind, they left the Healing Shack.

* * *

Later that night, everyone laid against the logs outside Buck and Lucy's den, patting their full bellies and fighting their yawns. Adrian and Cabe sat with them, and Adrian looked more content than he'd been in a long while. Ivory was the only one restless, staring into the fire with crossed legs, and biting her lip. Lucy, drowsy from a day full of good news and a stomach full of good food, spotted the young females anxious face, and frowned. Buck, the ever-sensitive husband, glanced at her, and raised an eyebrow. Subtly, she pointed to Ivory, who was tucked into a sleeping Rufus' side, and Buck tilted his head at the sight.

He didn't risk saying anything; the only sound around them was the jungle and the fire. A whispered word would be easy enough to pick up. He only nudged Lucy and flicked his head as an indication, and she nodded her agreement, and kissed him on the cheek before getting up.

"Ivory, come on," Lucy said, leaning down to the young weaselette. Ivory flinched out of her thoughts, and said,

"Oh, sorry Lucy." She took Lucy's paw and stood. "Where are we going?"

"Just for a walk, unless you're tired?"

Ivory shook her head. "I'm not tired at all to be honest. Let's go."

Lucy looped her arm through Ivory's, and they walked away together, Buck watching them go with a smile.

They entered the deep of the jungle, the sound and light of the fire fading behind them, and the warmth of the spring night air kept them comforted.

"Something is bothering you, isn't it?" Lucy said kindly.

Ivory sighed, and her shoulders started coming up, but she forced them down again, trying not to appear meek. "Yeah, but I don't know what it is."

"What were you thinking about when you were staring at the fire?"

"I honestly can't remember. I just… something feels wrong."

Lucy paused, not sure if she should ask what she was thinking. Eventually, she figured it couldn't possibly do much harm.

"Is it being with Rufus?" she said quietly.

Ivory took a deep breath in, thinking about it.

"No, at least not when it comes to him. I really do…love him, I think, but it's not that. It was that I got married. I got married to escape my family who would have forced me to get married. I'm not them, but I'm not you guys either." She sat down on the ground, suddenly emotional. She hadn't realised how much these feelings had been bothering her. that she didn't belong. Despite Buck and Lucy teaching her, of Ruby and Calamity excepting her as their friend, despite Rufus loving her, she wasn't part of this world or the above world.

"No, you're not us, and you're not who you used to be," Lucy said calmly, crouching in front of her and putting a paw on her cheek, making Ivory look at her. "You're better than both. You're sweet and genuinely kind, but you can stand up for yourself while happily protecting others before yourself. You're the perfect combination. It's why you feel so out of place. Brendis wasn't really wrong about us, we are savages."

"No, you're not! You're all so kind to everyone, and you-,"

"Cut a males head clean from his shoulders in revenge." Lucy said. "And I would have made it slower if I had had the time."

"But that was different, that was war."

"War is the most crucial time to act kindly, that is why you were crucial through that fight."

Ivory looked away with a blush of anger and embarrassment rippling her skin. "I didn't do anything."

"Untrue. I saw you, only tackling those who were about to harm our own, then ran off again to the next one. It was amazing, what I saw that day. You didn't spill a drop of blood but you saved countless lives. This is why you feel so out of place, because at your core, you're better than any of us. I love my children, but they grew up with Buck as a father, and it made them powerful and reckless."

"Cal maybe, but not Jai." Ivory said, brushing a tiny sapling at her side tenderly.

Lucy laughed. "Don't be fooled by his calm, once he snaps he's scarier than Cal."

Ivory sighed again. "That still doesn't explain what I am, what role I have to play here. I've only ever had one future before, now I have so many. Which one do I choose?"

"That's totally up to you. But Rufus made a good point to me the other day. You would be a wonderful baby-sitter for the village females, and I'm sure the triplets could use some friends, especially if you're watching over them."

"Well, I do love things that are cute and cuddly." Ivory said with a laugh. "I just think the marriage was so sudden…"

"It's just a title for now. If you and Rufus change your minds, like young minds do, it can always be rubbed away, and we don't have to tell your brother." Lucy said.

Ivory smiled. "I'm happy now." She grinned even wider. "Very happy. I don't have to know what I want to do right now, but I know I want Rufus and I know I'll never go back to the above-ground world. That's all I need for the moment."

Lucy hugged her. "That's all I needed to hear. Come on, let's get back, we're sending your brother packing in the morning."

 _In the village…_

Brendis sat on the edge of the packed-dirt bed the under-grounders had lent to him, his head in his paws. The lover in his bed shifted in his sleep, oblivious to Brendis' uneasiness.

Brendis stared at the woven packs in the corner of the dark den, seething with anger. Damn that Ivory. Their father had been mean, yes, but he hadn't been cruel. He'd been doing what was best for the family, what was best for his kids. Now Ivory had betrayed them-

And Brendis was at war.

A family had bought Ivory for their son, just before they had come down to the Under-grounders and all hell had broken loose. Brendis had been sure that out of all things, he'd been able to get Ivory back. Without her, the pact he had made with a very nasty family of weasels over the river back home, were going to rip his own family apart and take their land and food supplies. They wouldn't make it through the summer let alone the winter. He hadn't been able to tell Ivory or she would have been appalled and refused anyway, but now she had renounced the family, showing him how much she really didn't care.

To make matters worse, Bly was now in charge, the one Mustela that Lieutenant Fin had worked hard to make sure wouldn't ever be in charge of the village above.

Now she would take their main bargaining chip and uproot their tower of power.

And Brendis couldn't do a thing about any of it.

* * *

The light came, and the Mustela stirred in their dens and their chambers. Brendis got a knock on the door, and was escorted out of the village along with his guards.  
The morning sounds were what woke Ivory, and she felt giddy as she realised she was awake before Rufus, which had never happened before. She wriggled in their bed, making him shift and start to wake, then she giggled.

"What is it..?" Rufus groaned in a half-asleep tone. "What's so funny?"

"Your face."

"Why is my face funny?"

"Have you seen it?" She grabbed his cheeks. "It's just too cute." She squished them around a bit, making him smile and frown. It woke him up enough that he smiled and grabbed her wrists gently.

"I'm glad to see you're in a good mood. You've been so distant lately."

"Lucy and I talked last night."  
 _  
Now_ he was awake. "About what? Are you okay?"

"I'm better than okay."  
And she leaned forward and kissed him, hard.

They'd never kissed like this before. Small, playful pecks, yes, but both had been too scared to give way to their true feelings. Ivory's heart was going fast than a raptor running downhill, as she felt his arms wrap around her side and pull her closer, until they were entwined. They stopped their kiss, and sighed together in content.

"I can choose to do whatever I want, and it doesn't scare me anymore. It makes me happy." Ivory whispered, trailing her claws along his cheek calmly.

"That's all I need." Rufus said with a shrug, and they dozed away the morning, happy just to be with each other.


End file.
